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Post by Sher on Jun 2, 2005 7:55:55 GMT -5
SHELBYVILLE, Indiana (AP) -- A woman held hostage inside a convenience store for nearly 20 hours was rescued Thursday and the suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire with officers, authorities said.
Shelby County Prosecutor Kent Apsley confirmed the death of the man, who entered the Bigfoot store Wednesday morning after a police chase on a nearby highway. The noise was heard in the store about 6:30 a.m.
Authorities gave no details on the condition of the hostage, but a woman could be seen running with police from the scene. Earlier, they had said the hostage was uninjured and "in good spirits, under the circumstances."
Police had worked overnight trying to persuade the man to give himself up.
State police Sgt. Ray Poole said the hostage-taking occurred after police in nearby Batesville began pursuing a car carrying two men, chasing them for about 35 miles along Interstate 74.
Other officers stretched spike stop sticks across the interstate, but the driver dodged the sticks and entered the median, driving the wrong way on eastbound lanes for a short distance.
The car eventually turned around and exited onto a state road, where witnesses said it broadsided a pickup truck and then pulled into the Bigfoot's parking lot around 10:45 a.m.
Police apprehended one of the men but the other man jumped out, fired at officers and entered the store.
"He started firing at the police," said Victoria Felts of Rushville, who was pumping gas when the gunman drove the damaged car into the parking lot.
Felts said she fled: "I was closer than most people would want to be."
Shelbyville is in central Indiana, about 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis.
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Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 8:26:34 GMT -5
INDIANAPOLIS -- Police say they're trying to find a woman accused of beating her 11-year-old son with a coaxial cable.
Investigators said Victoria Morgan, 33, disappeared with her two other children after the 11-year-old fled his west-side Indianapolis home and sought help from strangers, who drove him to the Speedway Police Department.
Police said they believe Morgan ordered the boy to get into a tub naked and struck him with a coaxial cable. She had put water on the cable to provide more of a stinging effect to the strikes, police said.
The boy has bruises and scratches on his neck, arms, back and legs. Police said the boy was beaten because Morgan accused him of stealing $30 from her.
"He told me that it hurt bad," Indianapolis police Detective Greg Williams said. "He was trying to protect himself -- protect his face, protect his eyes.
"He said the only thing he could do was ball up facedown in the tub to protect his extremities."
The boy was treated and is now in protective custody, RTV6's Derrik Thomas reported.
Authorities said they have enough evidence to charge Morgan with battery.
Police also told RTV 6 they believe Morgan's family may be helping to hide her.
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Indiana
Aug 15, 2005 10:56:43 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 15, 2005 10:56:43 GMT -5
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- A couple convicted of reckless homicide in their newborn daughter's death must pay the hospital bill for another daughter who was kept in intensive care for 75 days despite their religious objections, an appeals court ruled.
Dewayne and Maleta Schmidt now face a nearly $172,000 US medical bill for five-year-old Makalynn, along with a work-release sentence following their convictions in the 2003 death of their other daughter, Rhianna.
The Schmidts are members of the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which advocates prayer and faith healing over medical intervention.
It does not require members to shun medical care, though.
A three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Schmidts' religious objections to medical treatment did not negate their parental duty to pay for their child's health care.
ANONYMOUS CALL
"Parents, while free to make martyrs of themselves, are not free under identical circumstances to make martyrs of their children," Judge Margret Robb wrote.
Telephone messages left by The Associated Press at the couple's home seeking comment during the weekend were not returned.
Authorities went to the couple's home in 1999 following an anonymous 911 call that a pregnant woman was in medical distress, according to court documents.
The deputies called for an ambulance for Maleta Schmidt, who was then seven months pregnant, even though her husband refused consent and told them he had no health insurance and would not pay for any medical services.
Hospital doctors ordered an emergency caesarean section despite the couple's objections.
The hospital did not charge the Schmidts for Maleta's care.
But it did bill them nearly $172,000 for Makalynn's delivery and stay, and later went to court to collect when the couple refused to pay.
The judge ruled in favour of the hospital.
The Schmidts appealed, arguing that they were not obligated to pay because they repeatedly told medical personnel about their religious objections and their refusal to pay for care.
CONVICTED IN MAY
The couple's other daughter, Rhianna Schmidt, died from an infection, typically treated with antibiotics, less than two days after she was born at home in August 2003.
Instead of taking the ailing infant to a doctor or hospital, the couple asked church elders to pray over her.
The Schmidts were convicted in May of reckless homicide charges in Rhianna's death and were sentenced Friday to staggered one-year sessions of work release so that one parent could care for their two children while the other serves time.
The Schmidts' probation includes a directive to seek medical help should their children encounter life-threatening health problems. They also must take classes in first aid and CPR.
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Indiana
Sept 20, 2005 19:24:21 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Sept 20, 2005 19:24:21 GMT -5
REMINGTON, Indiana (AP) -- A gunman shot and killed two women working at a northern Indiana convenience store Monday, and police were seeking a man who also was suspected of killing a teenage girl in Ohio.
Melvin M. Keeling, 43, was identified from images captured by a camera inside the store after the shooting was reported shortly after 10 a.m., authorities said.
Keeling, of Deerfield Township, Ohio, also was wanted for questioning in the shooting death about 3 1/2 hours earlier of Katelind Caudill, 13, at her grandmother's house about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati, authorities said.
Keeling was wanted on charges of rape and gross sexual imposition involving a child in an unrelated case, the Warren County sheriff's office said.
Katelind was involved in that investigation but was not the victim, the sheriff's office said.
Lisa Kendall, 29, and Kendora Furr, 38, were found shot about 10 a.m. by a customer who went inside the convenience store because the gasoline pump was not on, The Journal and Courier of Lafayette reported.
One of the women died at the store, while the other was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital, Chief Deputy Sheriff Terry Risner said.
Investigators believe the shootings occurred during an attempted robbery and that something must have scared the gunman, Risner said.
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