A mountain lion has been spotted several times in the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve in southern Arizona and visitors are being warned to be careful.
Staff is monitoring the lion’s activity to determine if it has become habituated to people, which can be risky to people who frequent the area, a news release from The Nature Conservancy says.
Periodic closures may occur, according to a news release Friday by the conservancy.
The 921-acre preserve is just outside the town of Patagonia, about 50 miles southeast of Tucson.
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — Authorities are investigating a small explosion that happened at the back entrance of a Social Security Administration office in a small town about 50 miles south of Phoenix.
The explosion was reported just before 8:30 a.m. Friday and no one was injured, Casa Grande Fire Marshal Barbara Rice said.
Television images show the building was blackened around the entry door, but Rice said the damage was not extensive.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent investigators to the scene. ATF spokesman Tom Mangan said the FBI had taken over the investigation and referred questions to that agency.
Calls to the FBI and Casa Grande police were not immediately returned.
A local resident whose wife works in the office and who talked to one of her co-workers said he was concerned about the staff, even though no one was hurt.
“She was crying and extremely upset,” Ed Mouradian told the Arizona Republic. “I am concerned for all the employees’ well-beings. It’s a small office that’s very tight-knit.”
Casa Grande was once a farming community of a few thousand people but grew into a distant bedroom community for Phoenix when developers began building hundreds of homes in the early 2000s.
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A Fremont man was arrested Sunday after he allegedly tied up his girlfriend and tried to hang her from a tree in his backyard, police said.
The girlfriend called police around 5:50 p.m. from a cell phone and frantically told them she was tied up in the backyard at her boyfriend’s house on the 41500 block of Beatrice Street, said police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques.
(hello my boyfriend is trying to hang me)
The woman’s hands had been zip-tied behind her back but when her boyfriend stepped inside for a cigarette, she was able to reach for her phone in her back pocket and call police, Bosques said. The dispatcher had a hard time hearing her and the woman didn’t say much, but was able to give police the address of the house, Bosques said.
When police arrived at the house, they found her with her hands tied behind her back and a rope tied around her neck and connected to a tree. Her boyfriend, 31-year-old Daniel Howard, was standing behind her when police arrived. He pushed her toward a creek embankment at the edge of the back yard and jumped over a side fence, Bosques said.
Police released the woman, and officers chased down and arrested Howard several houses away. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of attempted murder. The woman, who lives in San Jose, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
Police have had contact with Howard numerous times in the past, Bosques said.
(11-29) 11:34 PST PALO ALTO -- A Palo Alto woman woke up early Thursday with an intruder in her bedroom, police said.
The assault has police wondering if the intruder, who entered the apartment at the 100 block of Hawthorne Avenue after breaking a lock, might be the same man who has groped three other women in August and September.
All have happened within walking distance of the Palo Alto Caltrain station.
In Thursday's incident, a man broke his way into the first-floor unit of a woman in her 20s, said Detective Sgt. Brian Philip.
She woke up just after 2 a.m. and found the man standing over her bed. She sat up and he yelled at her, pinning her down to the bed by the wrists, Philip said. He fled after she fought back and screamed.
Police searched the area but the assailant had escaped.
He was described as being in his 20s or 30s, having a medium build and wearing a hooded dark jacket and dark pants, Philip said.
In the earlier cases, the groper was described as being around 30 years old and about 5 feet 9 inches tall, with an average build and black hair.
In those cases, that suspect approached women who were alone during daylight hours and grabbed and fondled their buttocks or breasts before running away. The assaults happened at El Palo Alto Park, Stanford Shopping Center and in downtown Palo Alto on Hamilton Avenue.
"There's always that chance that it's related to those incidents because of the location and the nature of the crime," Philip said.
The substance-abuse counselor accused of killing a Torrance man while driving
drunk was charged with murder and faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutors
said.
Sherri Wilkins, 51, appeared in court Tuesday but postponed her arraignment
until next month on felony charges of murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while
intoxicated, DUI causing injury, drunken driving while causing injury and
leaving the scene of an accident, according to the Los Angeles County district
attorney's office.
Wilkins has two prior burglary convictions and is a third-striker,
prosecutors said. She is being held on $2.25-million bail.
Police said Wilkins' car hit Phillip Moreno, 31, as he tried to cross
Torrance Boulevard on Saturday night and kept driving more than two miles with
the man embedded in her car's windshield. Other motorists managed to stop her at
182nd Street and Crenshaw Boulevard and grab her keys, Torrance police Sgt.
Robert Watt said.
Moreno had a pulse when officers arrived but was pronounced dead at a local
hospital. Watt said Wilkins had a blood-alcohol level more than double the 0.08
legal limit.
Wilkins had a certification in drug and alcohol counseling and worked at a
Torrance treatment center, where she led small group classes six evenings a
week. She wrote in an undated Myspace profile that she "used to be into drugs
very heavy" and "with that came terrible choices," but that she had been sober
for 11 years.
Police say this man is living under the stolen identity of Brandon McClarnon.
NATIONAL CITY — Investigators are working to find a man suspected of slowly taking over someone else’s identity, working two jobs and buying everything from a pickup to diamonds under the person’s name.
The suspect assumed the identity of Brandon McClarnon, getting jobs at Wheels for Rent in National City and Cox Cable in San Diego under the name, according to Crime Stoppers.
He was also able to obtain a driver’s license as McClarnon.
Recently, he used his girlfriend’s 6-year-old and 10-year-old children to steal merchandise from a store while he waited in the car, authorities said. The children were caught, but the suspect drove off, leaving the kids behind.
He is wanted on identity theft and child endangerment charges.
He is described as Latino, 6 feet tall, 250 to 290 pounds, with a shaved head/black hair, brown eyes and an earring in the right ear. He may have a goatee.
Anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the suspect can call National City police Investigator Tom Di Zinno at (619) 336-4473 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
A mountain lion has been spotted several times in the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve in southern Arizona and visitors are being warned to be careful.
