Man kills wife, then himself in hospital
VALHALLA, N.Y. -- A man who said he wanted to end his ailing wife's suffering shot her to death in her bed at a suburban New York hospital Wednesday and then killed himself, police said.
Richard DeLucia, 71, left a note at the couple's condo indicating that he was distraught about how his wife, Ann, 70, was suffering and wanted to put a stop to her ordeal, Westchester County police spokesman Kieran O'Leary said.
Then the husband went to his wife's room at Westchester Medical Center with a licensed .38-caliber revolver, fired a single shot that killed his wife and then took his own life with another shot, police said. No one else was in the room at the time, authorities said.
Ann DeLucia, whose medical condition wasn't immediately revealed, was found in her bed and her husband was found on the floor of her fourth-floor room at the Valhalla hospital, about 35 miles north of Manhattan, police said.
The gunfire prompted a brief lockdown of the center.
U.S. to sanction Russia over poisoning
WASHINGTON -- The United States announced Wednesday that it will impose new sanctions on Russia for illegally using a chemical weapon in an attempt to kill a former spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this year.
The new sanctions, to be imposed later this month, come despite President Donald Trump's efforts to improve relations with Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin, and amid the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
The State Department said the U.S. has determined that Russia had used the Novichok nerve agent to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and that sanctions would follow. It said Congress is being notified of the determination, made Monday, and that the sanctions would take effect on or around Aug. 22, when the finding is to be published in the Federal Register.
Those sanctions will include the presumed denial of export licenses for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications, according to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters.
Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by the Novichok military-grade nerve agent in Salisbury in March.
The U.S. had joined Britain in condemning Russia for the Skripal poisoning and joined with European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response.
Officials: Boys got assault rifle training
TAOS, N.M. -- Prosecutors said the father of a missing Georgia boy was training children at a New Mexico compound to commit school shootings, as authorities waited to learn if human remains found at the site were those of the boy.
Court documents obtained Wednesday said Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was conducting weapons training with assault rifles at the compound near the Colorado border where authorities say they found 11 hungry children living in filthy conditions in a raid Friday.
Prosecutors did not bring up the school shooting accusation in court Wednesday during an initial appearance by the abuse suspects. A judge ordered Wahhaj held without bail pending further proceedings. Wahhaj was arrested Friday with four other adults who are facing child abuse charges.
In court documents, authorities said a foster parent of one of the 11 children removed from the compound had told authorities that the child had been trained to use an assault rifle in preparation for a school shooting.
However, Aleks Kostich of the Taos County public defenders office, questioned the prosecutor's accusations that Wahhaj was training children, saying prosecutors may be uncertain about the source's credibility.
Dad of dead N.Y. baby held in Thailand
NEW YORK -- A father fled to Thailand after carrying his dead 7-month-old baby around New York City in a backpack and tossing his body into a river near the Brooklyn Bridge, police said Wednesday.
Thai authorities stopped James Currie, 37, when he landed in Bangkok and blocked him from entering the country, N.Y. Police Department Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. He will be returned to New York within days to face a felony charge of concealment of a human corpse, Shea said.
A tourist from Oklahoma spotted the diaper-clad body Sunday. Her husband pulled the lifeless baby from the East River to shore and tried reviving him.
The baby's mother, who lives separately from the father in the Bronx, had seen news reports about the baby. When she found out that Currie failed to drop their child off at day care, she called 911. Shea said the baby was alive when Currie took him to his Bronx apartment Saturday.
Video showed Currie walking toward the river and carrying the baby in a backpack that he fashioned as a baby carrier. A backpack was seen floating in the river near the boy's body.
Additional charges could be filed pending an autopsy.
A Section on 08/09/2018