A handcuffed Virginia teenager drowned yesterday after he fled from a Virginia State Police cruiser during a traffic stop and plunged more than 60 feet off a bridge into the Occoquan River, authorities said.
Rodger Rodriguez, 16, of Woodbridge, Va., somehow escaped from the front seat of a locked police cruiser and jumped over a thigh-high concrete barrier into the river, state police said.
Rodriguez had been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving about 3:20 a.m., after a state trooper clocked him going 90 mph. He was handcuffed and left to sit in the front passenger seat of the cruiser, Sgt. Terry Licklider said.
Rodriguez got out of the cruiser and fled as the trooper turned to the 2001 Nissan Pathfinder that Rodriguez had been driving. The trooper was planning to search the car and check for damage, Licklider said.
The Washington Post
Protests follow burial of groom
NEW YORK – The man gunned down in a spray of 50 police bullets on his wedding day was buried yesterday as hundreds of angry demonstrators honored him with a moment of silence before going jaw to jaw with police in a bitter confrontation outside a Queens precinct house.
The demonstrators taunted police, standing just inches away from a row of officers and daring the police to lay a hand on them. Some in the crowd held signs reading, “Death to the pigs” and “Shoot back.”
“Fifty shots from the New York cops!” the crowd chanted before the moment of silence.
Associated Press
Edwards, Clark have '04 campaign debts
NEW YORK – Democrats John Edwards and Wesley Clark have debts of several hundred thousand dollars from their unsuccessful White House bids in 2004, a burden as they consider presidential runs in 2008.
Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, had about $2,200 in his campaign account at the end of September and more than $300,000 in unpaid bills from his failed campaign for his party's nomination.
Clark, who has said he would decide in the next few months whether to run again, had about $390,000 left from the last campaign and debts totaling more than $260,000.
Associated Press
Philadelphia papers, unions negotiating
PHILADELPHIA – The largest union at Philadelphia's two biggest newspapers participated in contract negotiations last night while members prepared for a strike.
The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, which represents more than 900 editorial, advertising, circulation and clerical workers at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, had been prepared to strike after midnight Thursday, when its contract expired. But it held off a threatened walkout after the union and management reported progress, and nine other unions still negotiating made clear they wanted to avoid what they said would be a damaging strike.
Associated Press
Man who sparked fire will get treatment
NEW YORK – A homeless man arrested in the city's biggest fire in a decade will not be sent to prison.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Leszek Kuczera admitted to no crime in the 10-alarm blaze at a historic warehouse complex in Brooklyn. He will go to an alcohol-treatment program for about eight months.
“The defendant does need whatever support he can get,” state Supreme Court Judge Abraham Gerges said in a Brooklyn courtroom.
Authorities said Kuczera, 60, accidentally sparked the May 2 fire while trying to burn insulation off scavenged copper wire so he could sell it as scrap.
Associated Press
