Reminder: Driver’s License, Tax Collector Services Available Thursday In Century
April 17, 2024
Driver’s license and other tax collector services will be available in Century on Thursday, April 18 from 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. at the Billy G. Ward Courthouse.
Mobile Licensing and Identification Office (MILO) is a fully functional tax collector office on wheels, offering a range of services. The mobile unit provides a convenient method to renew a driver license, obtain a replacement driver license, conversion/reciprocation of out-of-state license, change a name or address on a current driver license or identification card, and get a first-time identification card. In addition to licensing services, the mobile unit also provides an opportunity to renew or replace a vehicle registration, receive a parking placard, transfer a title, pay property taxes, and apply for a business tax receipt. Written and driving tests are not available from the MILO unit.
Pictured: A citizens receives services at MILO at the Billy G. Ward Courthouse in Century on on March 21. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Softball: WFHS Tops Tate Varsity; Tate JV Shuts Out Jags
April 17, 2024
West Florida 2, Tate 1 (8 innings)
The West Florida Lady Jags got past the Tate Aggies 2-1 in nine innings Tuesday night.
Sydney Scapin went the full nine innings, giving up two hits and no runs while striking out 19 and walking one.
Kate Balagbagan went eight innings in the circle for Tate, surrendering no runs on five hits, walking one and striking out four.
Amburleigh Larid and Kara Wine both had one hit for Tate.
Ava Scapin was 3-4 at the plate for WFHS. Macey Vegas went 2-3.
Tate will host Pace on Thursday.
Tate 6, Pace 0 (JV)
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Bermúdez Brilliant As Blue Wahoos Start Extended Homestand In Memorable Style
April 17, 2024
The Blue Wahoos began their longest homestand of the season in a special way.
Jonathan Bermúdez helped make sure of it.
With one of the best starts of his professional career, Bermúdez dazzled with five no-hit innings, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, then watched three scoreless innings by three relievers as the Blue Wahoos beat the Rocket City Trash Pandas 1-0 before a crowd of 3,008 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“It was fun to be on the mound (Tuesday), I’ll tell you that,” said Bermúdez, a left-hander who joined the Blue Wahoos in May last season after being released from the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento.
After losing five of six road games last week at Montgomery, the Blue Wahoos continued their amazing success against Rocket City, the Los Angeles Angels affiliate. The Blue Wahoos are now 17-2 against the Trash Pandas in Pensacola, 27-6 overall against them.
This game was played in just two hours, 15 minutes. It began a stretch of 12 games in 13 days at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“It’s good to be home,” said Bermúdez, a Puerto Rico native who can speak English and Spanish fluently. “After a tough week, it’s good to start like this. “I think this team is really good. We showed it (Tuesday). The bats are going to get going. I trust our bats.
“Our bullpen is our forte. This week is going to be fun. We started it the right way.”
The game’s only run was produced with one blast. Designated hitter Zach Zubia led off the fourth inning with a no-doubter home run over the left field wall off a fastball that exited his bat at 112 mph.
But from that point, Rocket City starter Caden Dana, a 20-year-old from Warwick, New York, who is the No. 2 rated prospect in the LA Angels minor league system. Rocket City (5-5) has all four of the Angels’ top-rated prospects on this team.
Bermúdez wowed through five innings, facing only the minimum 15 batters with seven strikeouts and only one ball hit to the outfield on a flyout to centerfield.
Amazingly, the only baserunner he allowed in that span was the game’s first batter.
He plunked centerfielder Nelson Rada on his second pitch. Rada, an 18-year-old Venezuela native, is the Los Angeles Angels’ No. 1 prospect. Bermúdez then erased him on a pickoff. And from that point, it was perfection through the fifth inning.
With one out in the sixth inning, the Trash Pandas’ first hit was produced by a former Blue Wahoos player. Catcher Caleb Hamilton, 29, who played in Pensacola during the 2019 season as a Minnesota Twins prospect, laced a no-doubt single through into center field to break up the no-hitter.
And then it got dicey.
The next batter, Arol Vera, doubled down the third base line to put runners on second and third. Bermúdez then walked Rada on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.
Bermúdez dug in and stuck out shortstop Kyren Paris, the LA Angels’ No. 3 rated prospect, on a swing-and-miss fastball. He threw a slider to get Sam Brown to fly out to center and end the inning.
From that point, the Blue Wahoos bullpen shined. Josan Méndez, newcomer Raffi Vizcaíno, who joined the team Tuesday and was hitting near 100-mph with his fastball, along with closer Austin Roberts combined for three shutout innings. They combined for six strikeouts, no hits, no walks.
Vizcaíno and Roberts struck out all six batters they faced in a dominating end to the game.
GAME NOTABLES
The National Anthem was brilliantly performed Tuesday by Jessica Voigt, a Blue Wahoos group sales intern and UWF senior, who filled in when the scheduled singer could not make it.
WANT TO GO?
WHO: Rocket City Trash Pandas vs. Blue Wahoos.
WHEN: Wednesday, 6:05 p.m.
Update: Investigation Determines Cause Of Cantonment House Fire
April 16, 2024
Escambia County Fire Rescue has determined the cause of a residential structure fire Tuesday morning in Cantonment.
The fire in the 900 block of Candy Lane was reported about 6:45 a.m.
Firefighters arrived a few moments later to find light smoke coming from the single-story home. The fire was extinguished within approximately 25 minutes.
There were no injuries reported.
An ECFR rescue investigation determined the fire started when an electric power strip malfunctioned in one of the bedrooms.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour (power strip photo courtesy ECFR), click to enlarge.
New Details Released In Fatal Cottage Hill Shooting Of 16-Year-Old
April 16, 2024
Arrest and investigative reports obtained Tuesday morning by NorthEscambia.com detail what witnesses say happened late Friday night when a 16-year-old was fatally shot at a party at a Cottage Hill home.
Ethan Alexander O’Brien, 19, was charged with felony negligent manslaughter. He turned himself in Monday afternoon at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and was booked into the Escambia County Jail without bond.
“The investigation determined that during a large gathering at the residence, O’Brien (pictured) was showing off his firearm at which time it accidentally discharged hitting the 16-year-old. O’Brien fled the scene before deputies arrived,” The ECSO said Saturday morning.
The incident happened about 11:30 p.m. Friday at a home in the 600 block of Wishbone Road. The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Emergency dispatchers received one call from someone who told them she heard a gunshot from her neighbor’s house and someone screaming “help me”. Another caller reported that they heard one gunshot and two vehicles leaving, and people were knocking on other residents’ doors.
Another caller reported that there was a male that had a gunshot wound to his stomach and leg. Another 911 call reported that a 16-year-old male had been shot in the chest and was not breathing.
Deputies arrived on the scene and found a male on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest. Deputies unsuccessfully performed CPR and used an AED in an attempt to revive the victim, who was pronounced deceased by Escambia County EMS.
A 17-year-old witness told deputies that O’Brien pulled his gun from his trunk, and he had it out trying to shoot it, the report states. O’Brien then held the gun up midway and shot it. The witness told deputies that she did not feel that O’Brien was trying to shoot the victim on purpose.
Another witness, a 17-year-old male, said he heard a gunshot and screaming about five minutes after arriving at the home. He said O’Brien pointed the gun. “He believes he was messing around with the gun, and he felt that he didn’t shoot it on purpose,” the report states.
Another 17-year-old witness told deputies that she had invited a few friends over to her house and she was inside when the incident occurred. She heard a gunshot and went outside to find the victim on the ground and asked who was responsible.
“Do you want us to get in trouble, and he said I gots to leave,” she indicated O’Brien said. She continues that before the incident O’Brien showed her the gun that was in his trunk, and she asked to shoot it. She said she did not fire what she described to investigators as a “big gun”.
The victim grabbed his side after being shot and said, “You just shot me bro” before falling to the ground, an additional 17-year-old witness told law enforcement. He said O’Brien had an “AR style” rifle and he was playing with before the shooting.
An additional witness said he was standing by the road in front of the residence talking to a female when he heard someone said “I’ve been shot” multiple times and walking toward the house and saw the victim on the ground.
Other witnesses said the victim stated “I’m shot. You shot me” and O’Brien replied, “I shot you?” before the victim fell to the ground. The witness described the gun as an AR pistol.
An additional witness said O’Brien appeared to be intoxicated and showed her the gun and the handgun magazine had hollow, green tips. About five minutes prior to the fatal shot, the gun was fired outside, and a male came running in the door, playfully sliding on his stomach across the floor.
No shell casings were found at the scene.
The teens at the party were from Tate High School, and O’Brien does “stupid stuff”, one teen told investigators, declining to elaborate on what he meant by “stupid stuff”>
Deputies went to multiple addresses known to be associated with O’Brien but were unable to locate him.
The report states the homeowner was out of town during the incident.
Pictured top: The scene on Wishbone Road in Cottage Hill late Friday night after a teen was shot and killed. Pictured below: Crime scene still surrounded the home Saturday morning. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
DeSantis Touts Education Legislation, Limits On Book Challenges
April 16, 2024
Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Escambia County Monday to announce his support for HB 1285, which he said will further cement Florida as the best state in the nation for education
Speaking at Warrington Preparatory Academy, the governor said the bill will simplify the process to convert failed “turnaround schools” to charter schools so no child is stuck in a poor-performing school, and incentivizing school districts to grow their roster of Purple Star Schools to support military families.
He said the bill will also streamline content objection process for parents and preventing activists from making bad-faith objections. Specifically, residents that are not the parent or guardian with a child in the local school district will be limited to one book challenge per month.
“The frivolous book challenges need to stop,” DeSantis said. “What’s gone on in the this county has not been something is nothing something that the law has tried to do….I know Escambia had a lot of books that should not have been under review that somehow were. You’ve got to use some common sense on this.”
In Escambia County, Northview High School teacher Vicki Baggett has challenged scores of books in Escambia County and has attended school board meetings in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties to challenge more. Under the new law, she will be limited to one new challenge per month because she does not have children in the school district.
DeSantis did not menton Baggett by name during Monday’s event.
“That’s performative, that’s political, you’re trying to be an activist when you should be trying to be an educator,” he said.
“If you don’t have kids in the school district, you still are a citizen. You still can be interested in education, but you’re going to be limited to what you can be objecting to. You can raise an objection, and these are limited to one a month because what we found is you have activists that are going in there and they’re objecting to everything under the sun, and it’s from all ends of the political spectrum,” the governor said.
Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, PEN America, a “free expression organization”, and several individuals have filed suit alleging Escambia County schools have violated the First Amendment by setting out to remove or restrict access to books discussing race, racism, and LGBTQ identities, against the recommendations of the district review committee charged with evaluating book challenges.
The Escambia County District filed a motion that was denied in Pensacola federal court to dismiss the lawsuit. The judge urged the parties to settle the case in mediation rather than moving forward in court.
Pictured. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis touts education bill at Warrington Preparatory Academy in Escambia County on Monday. Image for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Attorney Charged With Possession Of Hundreds Of Child Porn Files
April 16, 2024
An Escambia County attorney is facing child pornography possession charges.
Alex Wesley Rigsby was arrested Friday on 30 first degree felony charges of possession of 30 or more child pornography images. He was released on a $1.2 million bond. Monday, a judge granted the state’s request to revoke bond.
After the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip, and investigation that involved the FBI. After a search warrant was executed for Rigsby’s phone, authorities reported finding 222 child porn image and videos on Rigsby’s cloud storage. A second file held over 160 child porn image and videos, according to an arrest report.
The files depicted the sexual abuse of children and infants, according to the report.
The report stated that Rigsby has was an active practicing attorney with Legal Services of North Florida and a member of the Florida bar since 2015.
Ernest Ward Middle School Names Students Of The Month
April 16, 2024
Ernest Ward Middle School recently named their Students of the Month for March. They are (L-R) Wyatt Jones, Natalie Rogers and Emma Reynolds. They are pictured with Principal Tyvanna Boulanger. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
FHP Says Charges Are Pending After Fatal Highway 29 Construction Zone Crash
April 16, 2024
The Florida Highway Patrol says charges are pending in a fatal crash involving a motorcycle last week in Molino.
The crash happened on Highway 29 near the Highway 97 intersection at about 10:50 p.m. on April 11.
A 21-year of Molino man was traveling north on Highway 29 on a yellow Honda motorcycle along with a person now identified as a 20-year-old Pensacola woman.
A 43-year-old Century man was also traveling north on Highway 29 approaching the construction area in a gray pickup truck towing a utility trailer.
FHP said, “the front of the Toyota pickup struck the rear of the Honda motorcycle”.
The man and woman were thrown from the motorcycle and landed on the roadway. The pickup truck came to a stop on the shoulder of the road.
The woman was pronounced deceased on the scene, and the man was airlifted to an area hospital by MedStar Air Care helicopter. The driver of the pickup truck was not injured.
Monday, FHP said charges are pending the conclusion of their investigation. Names were not released.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Beulah Middle FFA Team Named 2024 Florida FFA Aquaculture State Champions
April 16, 2024
The Beulah Middle School FFA team was named the 2024 Florida FFA Aquaculture state champions last weekend at the University of Florida/IFAS Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin, Florida. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.