Man Allegedly Beats Brother With Bat, Threatens To Kill Him
August 8, 2013
A Jay man is behind bars for allegedly beating his brother with a bat and leaving him lying in a driveway along a rural road outside Century.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office found the victim beaten and lying in the middle of a driveway in the 2900 block of Highway 4A just east of Killam Road The victim told deputies that his brother, 53-year old Steven Douglas Andrews, struck him repeatedly with a baseball bat and said he would break his knees and kill him.
The victim told deputies that he is homosexual and Andrews does not like him for that reason, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
The mother of the brothers told deputies Andrews had also placed a phone call to her saying that he was going to beat the victim with a baseball bat, teach him a lesson and kill him. The mother said she tried to stop Andrews from visiting, but heard him pull into the driveway and the altercation start.
The victim was transported to Baptist Hospital by Escambia County EMS for treatment of his injuries.
Andrews fled the scene before deputies arrived but was later taken into custody by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office at an address on Highway 4 in Jay.
Andrews was charged with second degree felony aggravated battery on a person using a deadly weapon. He remained in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $50,000.
Rain Possible Tonight, Friday
August 8, 2013
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Friday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Friday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the morning.
- Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Monday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the morning.
- Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
- Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73.
- Wednesday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 93.
- Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72.
- Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90.
Tate Grad Killed In Tampa Hit And Run Wreck
August 8, 2013
A Tate High School graduate now living in Tampa was struck and killed by a hit and run driver on Tuesday.
Michael Duriel Lee, 29, was riding his bicycle in a marked bike lane on the US 94 overpass over I-4 about 7:50 a.m. He was struck by a 1999 Ford Ranger that fled the scene. Lee was ejected from his bike and thrown from the overpass, landing in a retention pond 80 feet below the roadway.
Wednesday, authorities arrested 23-year-old Christopher Jacob Kimmel and charged him with leaving the scene of a crash involving death.
Lee was a 2001 graduate of Tate High School in Cantonment and still has family in the area. He was believed to be riding his bicycle to work at Central Power Systems, Inc. in Tampa.
Pictured top: This still image from a traffic camera shows the scene where at Tate HighSchool graduate’s bicycle was struck and thrown from an overpass in Tampa. Image courtesy FDOT for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge. Pictured inset: The truck that allegedly hit Lee. Pictured below: A paint chip from the truck recovered at the scene of the traffic crash. Photos courtesy Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for NorthEcambia.com, click to enlarge.
Man That Claimed To Be Beaten By Deputies Is Arrested
August 8, 2013
A man that claimed he was beaten by Escambia County deputies is now behind bars following a July 27 fight.
Devon Walker, 27, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of battery in connection with the fight at a trailer in the 3800 block of Creighton Road. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $11,000.
According to witnesses, several individuals became involved in a dispute over a cell phone and at some point during the altercation Walker pulled a firearm on the homeowner. When deputies arrived,they discovered three individuals lying on the floor inside of the trailer. All three individuals were intoxicated and had blood on them, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“Walker has falsely claimed that his injuries were caused by members of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office; however, these allegations have been determined false as evidenced by multiple written witness statements,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a written press release Wednesday afternoon.
“I definitely got beat up,” Devon Walker told the Pensacola Independent News. “The police beat me up.”
“The officer grabbed one of my arms and threw me to the ground,” Walker told the IN. “And then another one stepped on my face.”
Northview Mini Cheerleader Camp Begins Today
August 8, 2013
The Northview High School cheerleaders will host a mini-cheer camp beginning this afternoon.
The mini-cheer camp will be held Thursday and Friday from 3-5 p.m. in the gym for ages 4-years through the eighth grade. The cost is $20 for the camp and $10 for a shirt, register at the door. The mini cheerleaders will receive free admission and perform during the first quarter of the first home football game on August 23.
Pictured: Mini cheerleaders perform during a September 2012 game at Northview High School. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Two Teens Arrested For Murder
August 8, 2013
Two teens have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of another teen last week at the Pines Apartment in Warrington.
Wahoos Outshine Suns
August 8, 2013
Jon Moscot fired seven shutout innings in his second Double-A start, combining with two other Pensacola relievers to shutout the Jacksonville Suns 2-0 on Wednesday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
The 21-year-old worked around bits of trouble in the first and sixth innings to keep his scoreless outing in tact. In the first inning, Yorman Rodriguez threw out Derek Dietrich at the plate when Dietrich tried to score from second on a Zack Cox single. Moscot (1-0) wouldn’t allow another hit until the fifth inning and ended up allowing four hits, all singles, in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk.
The Blue Wahoos turned things over to Lee Hyde in the eighth, who retired the Suns in order to extend his scoreless streak to 30.1 innings dating back to May 21 between Pensacola and Louisville. Trevor Bell fired a perfect ninth to record his 12th save in as many tries for the Wahoos.
Moscot also provided a big blow on offense for the Wahoos, sparking a two-run rally with a leadoff triple in the third inning. He would come home to score on a Devin Lohman single to make it 1-0 before Lohman scored on a double play from Yorman Rodriguez to make it 2-0.
Anthony DeSclafani took the tough loss for the Suns despite allowing two runs (one earned) on 6.1 innings for the Suns. He struck out four and walked two while falling to 3-3.
With the win, Pensacola moved to within four games of first-place Jacksonville with four games remaining in the series. Daniel Renken (5-8, 3.58) is scheduled to start for the Wahoos on Thursday against the Suns’ Adam Conley (11-4, 3.04).
Florida CFO: Why Aren’t Insurance Costs Dropping?
August 8, 2013
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wants the state’s insurance commissioner to explain why property insurers haven’t reduced premiums at a time when reinsurance costs have dropped worldwide.
“If insurance companies can justifiably raise rates on Florida families because the reinsurance market drives their costs up, they can certainly lower the costs for Florida families when reinsurance prices fall,” Atwater wrote Wednesday to Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.
“Floridians not only deserve an explanation for why they have not seen any savings to date, they also deserve to quickly begin seeing property insurance savings in their bills.”
Reinsurance is backup insurance for insurance companies.
Atwater noted that insurance companies have claimed for years that rates have increased due to reinsurance costs. However, he said he’s read that reinsurance rates are down this year, on average 15 percent to 20 percent.
Amy Bogner, spokeswoman for the Office of Insurance Regulation, said McCarty is working on a response to address Atwater’s questions.
First Look: New Ernest Ward Middle School
August 7, 2013
An official groundbreaking ceremony will be held Thursday for the rebuild of Ernest Ward Middle School in Walnut Hill and A.K. Suter Elementary in Pensacola.
The groundbreaking at Ernest Ward will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at the school campus, 7650 Highway 97 in Walnut Hill. The A.K. Suter groundbreaking will be held at 1 p.m. at the schoo, 501 Pickens Avenue in Pensacola. The public is invited to both ceremonies.
Both schools are being rebuilt, Ernest Ward at a cost of about $16.5 million and A.K. Suter at a cost of about $21 million. Both schools will remain open during the reconstruction process.
Both construction projects are being funded by half-cent sales tax monies. It is anticipated that the new structure at A.K. Suter will be open for the 2014-2015 school year; Ernest Ward Middle School’s construction will take approximately two years for completion.
The new two-story Ernest Ward school building will be constructed as students remain on campus in the current facility. The new schoolwill be constructed between the current building and the football stadium.
The oldest buildings at Ernest Ward, including the main classroom wing, were constructed in 1945, while portions of Suter were build in the 1920’s. Once the new building is complete, the current building will be torn down, and portables and modular buildings currently on the campus will be removed.
Pictured top: A conceptual drawing of the new Ernest Ward Middle School in Walnut Hill. Pictured below: A conceptual drawing showing the inside of the library at the new Ernest Ward. NorthEscambia.com graphics, click to enlarge.
FHSAA Pledges Review Of Drug Policies
August 7, 2013
The Florida High School Athletic Association said Tuesday it would examine its policies dealing with performance-enhancing drugs in the wake of the wide-ranging Biogenesis scandal.
Officials with the association announced the review in a conference call with reporters. But they also stressed that the association itself is not allowed to test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs, and that many school districts would have trouble coming up with the resources to do so.
In Escambia County, athletes as well as participants in non-sports extracurricular activities and clubs must consent to the possibility of being selected for a random drug test.
Roger Dearing, executive director of the association, said the organization’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee would undertake the review.
The committee’s 15 members, including medical professors and coaches, are charged with considering whether to break out the association’s drug rules into their own policy, rather than having them as part of its sportsmanship policy, and whether new rules might be needed to help crack down on the substances.
Association officials say educating parents and students about the dangers of PEDs and pushing school districts to move quickly against coaches who encourage or ignore PED use will help.
“I think it’s something that we’ve got to put on the front-burner and be vigilant about,” Dearing said.
Dearing said the recent reporting about the Biogenesis clinic in South Florida serves as a “wake-up call” about the drugs’ possible impact on high-school sports. Biogenesis is infamous for its role in a scandal currently rocking Major League Baseball; more than a dozen players have been punished for their links to the clinic, and the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez is fighting a 211-game suspension that would last through at least the end of the 2014 season.
The Miami Herald reported Monday that it “has seen a partial list of alleged clients of Biogenesis from October 2011″ that included high-school students. It did not name the players on the list.
One of the biggest challenges in trying to test students is the financing, Dearing said. The Legislature did provide funding to randomly test about 650 students several years ago, with one student testing positive, but hasn’t funded a program of testing.
The screenings cost about $150 each, meaning to test each of the 283,000 athletes in FHSAA sports would cost around $42 million, Dearing said.
He suggested that a better tack might be to have local districts partner with civic groups or others who could help pay for some testing.
“I don’t think it’s the Legislature’s responsibility to fund, and I don’t think it’s the school districts’ responsibility to fund,” Dearing said.
Dr. Jennifer Roth Maynard, an assistant professor with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, said the advisory committee would begin its review at its next meeting, scheduled for the end of the month.
by The News Service of Florida