Chief widens search for Virginia student
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Investigators still have "no idea whatsoever" where a missing University of Virginia student might be despite the arrest of a fugitive who was seen walking off with her, Charlottesville's police chief said Thursday.
The search for Hannah Graham has expanded to rural areas outside the college town of 40,000, Chief Timothy Longo said. Meanwhile, Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. agreed to be escorted to Virginia after fleeing to Texas, where he was arrested while camping out on a beach.
Matthew, a 32-year-old operating room technician at the university's hospital, is charged with "abduction with intent to defile" the 18-year-old sophomore, and should be back in Charlottesville by Saturday, Longo said.
Graham disappeared Sept. 13, after a night of partying in the college town, and search efforts initially focused on Charlottesville. While investigators consider more than 1,500 tips they've received, the search has moved to surrounding Albemarle County, which is dotted with rolling hills, farms and vineyards. Longo appealed to landowners to search their properties, and to real estate agents to check on vacant houses.
Food firm stabbings kill 1; worker held
MOORE, Okla. -- An "angry employee" at a food distribution center in suburban Oklahoma City stabbed two women Thursday, killing one of them, before an off-duty law enforcement officer shot the assailant, police said.
Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said the perturbed man attacked the first two people he encountered at Vaughan Foods in Moore before the off-duty officer who was working at the business shot him. The surviving victim and the suspect were both hospitalized.
The motive for the attack was unclear, but Lewis said the suspect and the victims were apparently not involved with each other outside of their work at the business.
"The victims had no relationship to the suspect. He is just an angry employee that acted out," Lewis said.
Police were called about 4:15 p.m. to reports of a fight inside Vaughan Foods and while en route, officers were told that there had been a shooting, Lewis said.
He said the building was evacuated and searched, but no other danger was found.
A phone call to Vaughan Foods late Thursday afternoon was not answered, and a spokesman for its parent company, Reser's Fine Foods, did not immediately return calls.
Dad calls son's shooting by police murder
DAYTON, Ohio -- The father of a man fatally shot by police as he held an air rifle inside an Ohio Wal-Mart said Thursday that he believes his son was murdered, despite a special grand jury declining to criminally charge the officers.
John Crawford Jr., whose son was shot Aug. 5 at a Wal-Mart in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, said at a news conference that he was appalled the officers weren't indicted. He said he welcomed an announced U.S. Justice Department probe to determine if his 22-year-old son's civil rights were violated.
"The officer went in and virtually shot him on sight," Crawford Jr. said. "He did not have a chance."
John Crawford III was black, and the officers are white. Attorneys for Crawford's family said they hope a federal grand jury will consider if or how race was a factor in the shooting.
Crawford was shot twice by one officer, once in the elbow and once in the side under the rib area slightly from the front to the back, said prosecutor Stacey DeGraffenreid, who assisted special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier.
Police said the Fairfield man didn't obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf.
Magnitude-6.2 earthquake rocks Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A powerful earthquake shook a large swath of Alaska on Thursday morning, knocking things off shelves and causing people to take cover but resulting in no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2. The epicenter was about 80 miles northwest of Anchorage, the state's largest city, where it was strongly felt, the Alaska Earthquake Center said. The quake lingered for at least a minute in some areas.
The earthquake center is in Fairbanks, 250 miles northeast of the epicenter, but it was felt, even there, said Sara Meyer, a center research technician.
No tsunami was expected, according to an emergency management official.
Bryan Fisher, incident commander for the state emergency operations center, said the office has received scattered reports of things falling off shelves. But there have been no reports of any infrastructure damage.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 09/26/2014