The two NATO troops killed in an ambush in Afghanistan Wednesday were identified as U.S. special tactics airmen, NBC News reported.

Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, of Lexington, Kentucky, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, of Pensacola, Florida, died after gunmen wearing Afghan security forces uniforms opened fire on their vehicle while it was stopped at a checkpoint near Camp Antonik, the Air Force said.

"These two combat controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation's Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation," Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander, said in a statement.

Three US soccer stars are doing their part to give back to the community.

Landon Donovan, Brian Ching, and Stuart Holden kicked the ball around and helped kids score goals at a soccer camp for refugees Thursday at the San Diego Polo Fields.

For the clinic the trio partnered with YALA San Diego, a group that helps refugees and immigrants in East County.

“We wanted to do something that helped us stay connected to each other, stay connected to the communities that we go to, and stay connected to the game that’s been so good to us,” Landon Donovan, a six-time MLS Cup champion told NBC7.

The former US National Team members started HELM soccer camps three months ago as a way to do that. HELM stands for humility, education, leadership, and motivation.

They knew they could put together a generic soccer camp – but the players wanted something more genuine.

“We want to be immersed in it, involved in it, and have an impact – a real impact on lives more so than just saying hi and signing an autograph or taking a picture,” Donovan said. “YALA San Diego was a natural fit. What they do aligns perfectly with what we do and it was a perfect marriage.”

Stuart Holden, a former English Premier League player, said YALA’s focus on education through soccer felt right for what they were hoping to do in their camps.

“To be able to have that type of impact is humbling and to be able to donate our time,” Holden said, “it’s a really special once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

YALA San Diego is as much focused on college preparation as it is on dribbling the ball.

“In addition to our soccer program we have academic programs and college prep programs,” said Ryan Shera, soccer director for YALA soccer club.

Shera says this year YALA had 21 of 22 seniors get accepted to four-year universities. The 22nd student could not be accepted to college because he is a Syrian refugee and his sealed transcripts are stuck in Syria.

“These are some of the issues we deal with and the issues that our players face,” Shera said.

YALA’s motto is 'soccer is the hook, college is the goal'.

About 60 players participated in the one-day clinic
 

County Animal Services seized 18 animals Thursday in Jacumba.

Originally responding to a report of neglect, Animal Control Officers required the owner to provide veterinary care and feed the animals adequately.

After finding no change in the quality of care Control Officers returned to the home Thursday.

“We confirmed there was still no food on the property, we went out today, and we ended up seizing all the animals for their own protection,” Lt. Laura Ward of the Department of Animal Services said in a statement.

Officers found most of the animals very thin and emaciated after months of almost no food.

“Because we have done several of these horse seizures in the last couple of years we work really closely with the large animal veterinarians, and we’ve gotten really good at adding to the diet as it goes to get weight on these horses pretty quickly," Ward said.

Officers also found a dead four-month baby horse at the proporty.

Animal services seized three horses, one Shetland pony, ten goats and four pigs. They are being cared for at the county’s animal care facility in Bonita.
 

The number of migrants found dead in a truck abandoned on the side of a highway in Austria has reached 71, Austrian officials said Friday, NBC News reported.

The victims were 59 men, eight women and four children — including a girl who was no older than two years of age, according to Burgenland Police director Hans Peter Doskozil.

Meanwhile, three suspects believed to be involved in people smuggling have been arrested in connection with the case, and at least one other individual is being hunted, authorities confirmed. 

Police originally thought up to 50 refugees had died inside the vehicle, which had been parked up on the shoulder of the busy road, 10 miles from Austria's border with Slovakia and Hungary.

The war in Syria has contributed to record numbers of migrants attempting to cross into Europe from Africa and the Middle East this year, often taking perilous sea crossings and stowing away in trucks.

Tuna lovers have your pick: $25 in cash or $50 in tuna.

StarKist is offering affected customers cash or tuna fish as part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit that alleged the company under-filled some of its 5-ounce cans of tuna by several tenths of an ounce, NBC News reported. StarKist has denied wrongdoing. 

A shopper must have bought one of the company's 5-ounce cans of chunk light tuna or solid white tuna in water or oil between Feb. 19, 2009, and Oct. 31, 2014, to be eligible for the cash or tuna.

Affected consumers can file a claim through the settlement website TunaLawsuit.com. 

The website says that a receipt or other proof of purchase is not needed to submit a claim. 

Two men suffered nonlife threatening injuries after they were stabbed in Oceanside on Thursday afternoon.

Firefighter paramedics responded to the 600 block of Crouch Street and found two people, 28-year-old Richard Lincoln and 30-year-old Trent Wyatt, with stab wounds. The stabbing was reported at about 3:45 p.m.

Police say both men were transients and got into a fight at a transient camp near Crouch Street and Skylark Drive. Officers are looking for a third man believed to be involved in the fight.

After the stabbing, both victims ran from the camp to the Sprinter station, where they collapsed.

Lincoln and Wyatt were airlifted separately to Scripps La Jolla Hospital, and both were uncooperative. They told police they do not know what happened, according to officials.

No weapons have been recovered, and a motive has not been revealed.

Oceanside police have not made any arrests in the case and are investigating.

A wildfire is burning in the North County south of State Route 76 and west of Interstate 15.

Cal Fire and Vista Fire crews responded to the report of a wildland fire near Gopher Canyon Road and East Vista Way just after noon.

The most recent estimate was two acres scorched with a slow rate of spread.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

The Chula Vista Veterans Home wasted nearly $50,000 on a lift it barely uses, the California State Auditor said in a report released Thursday.

The home, which is run by the California Department of Veterans Affairs, bought a Genie boom lift in July 2010 for $49,937.

The finance and purchase manager, who no longer works for the veterans home, submitted a purchase request for the lift to change light bulbs in the parking lot, paint the exterior walls, trim trees and maintain lighting, according to a veterans home official who was hired after 2010.

But in the last five years, the auditor's report says employees at the home have used the lift only 16 hours — an average of about 3.2 hours a year.

The auditor said if the Chula Vista Veterans Home had rented the equipment, it would have saved the state thousands of dollars “during a time when the State was suffering from a significant budget crisis.” The same company that sold the lift rents them out for $259 a day, $865 a week or $2,244 a month, with a $170 delivery and pickup fee, according to the report.

Had the boom lift been rented at that rate for one day a year, the home would have spent just $2,145 instead of $49,937.

According to the current official's statement to the state auditor, the home has “a minimal need” for the lift, and he would not have authorized the purchase if he was working there at the time. However, it does reduce safety and liability risks for employees who need to work in hard to reach areas, he said.

NBC 7 reached out to the California Department of Veterans Affairs about the report and received this statement Thursday:

“The California Department of Veterans Affairs is assessing the current value of the boom lift and, if appropriate, will take steps to dispose of the boom lift by sale or auction, in accordance with state policy.”

Among the auditor's other findings was a revelation that Caltrans officials approved the time sheets of an engineer who wasted 55 workdays playing golf.

To read the entire report, click here.

A college junior died after being shot Thursday night in Savannah State University’s student union building.

Christopher Starks, a junior from the Atlanta area, died at a local hospital, the college said in a statement.

According to two women who were in the union, there was a fight that ended in one person being shot in the collarbone area, NBC affiliate WSAV reported. The station said that other students applied pressure to the wound before first responders arrived.

The shooting prompted a lockdown at the Georgia campus. It wasn't immediately clear whether a suspect was in custody. No further details were immediately available.

A sexually-violent predator has been ordered to return to a state hospital after he admitted to violating terms of his release, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced Thursday.

Gary Snavely, 49, will be sent back to treatment at Coalinga State Hospital, a mental health facility in Coalinga, Calif., about 315 miles north of San Diego.

According to Dumanis, Snavely, a diagnosed pedophile, admitted to violations including misuse of medications and failing to remain appropriately clothed at all times while in public view on his property in Jacumba.

He also “failed to report any and all instances of sexual thoughts and fantasies involving sexual deviance to treatment staff,” Dumanis said.

Snavely was removed from his home and taken into custody on July 2 by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department on allegations that he violated his terms of release.

With his admission to those allegations Thursday, he agreed to revocation.

Dumanis said there are no new victims linked to Snavely.

Snavely’s record is marked with multiple prison sentences, releases, violations and court-ordered treatments dating back nearly three decades.

Up until his arrest on July 2, Snavely had been living at 45612 Old Highway 80 in Jacumba – about a mile away from Jacumba Elementary School.

He was placed in the residence on Feb. 20 under a conditional release in a move approved by Judge Louis Hanoian. That same judge sent ordered him back to the hospital Thursday, the DA’s office said.

Prior to Snavely’s move to Jacumba, 10 letters opposing the placement of the sexually-violent predator in the neighborhood were submitted, including one from San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

Following his July 2 arrest, Jacob said she was not surprised to hear Snavely – whom she referred to as a “monster” – had violated the terms of his release. She said he did not belong in the community.

Snavely was convicted in 1987 of molesting two girls between the ages of eight and nine in the Orange County area. He served three years in prison for the crime and was then placed on parole. He violated the conditions of his parole and was sent back to prison.

Snavely was released in 1996. While living in San Diego, he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, the DA’s office said. For this, Snavely was sentenced to 16 months in state prison.

Before his release from prison in 1998, the DA’s office filed a petition to civilly commit Snavely as a sexually-violent predator. He was ordered to undergo treatment at a state hospital.

In 2008, the court granted Snavely’s request for conditional release. Months later, however, he was ordered back to a state hospital for misusing medication – a violation of his terms of release.

In August 2014, a judge granted Snavely’s request once more for conditional release, and he was placed in a house in Jacumba.

San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies announced a child porn arrest linked to a man recently accused of soliciting a sex act from a teen in a public library.

Sean O’Farrell, 40, was in custody in Vista Jail, accused of possessing video evidence of minors in a state of undress, naked, performing sexual acts. The average age of the victims was estimated to be 14 to 17 years old.

Deputies served a search warrant at the Solana Beach home of O'Farrell's parents.

They announced the allegations Thursday because they believe there may be other victims.

O'Farrell was accused last week of offering to pay a 15-year-old boy for a sex act according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department. Deputies say the two met in the second floor bathroom of the Rancho Cucamonga Library at approximately 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18.

O’Farrell asked the teenager for his age and was told he was 15, deputies said. That’s when O’Farrell started asking sexual questions and allegedly offered to pay for a sex act, officials said.

Deputies say the teenager refused and walked away. However, the teen noticed O’Farrell allegedly following him around the library and notified a staff member. The library employee called the sheriff’s department.

After confronting O’Farrell, investigators say they found library cards from different locations.

NBC 7 reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department to ask if there were any previous incidents involving O'Farrell in our community.

A spokesperson for the department confirmed deputies did contact O'Farrell in 2010 and 2013 when people at the Solana Beach Library reported a man frequently going to the restroom.

Those at the library believed O'Farrell was acting suspiciously, the sheriff's department says, but no arrest was made because there was no evidence that any criminal activity had occurred.

On Thursday, deputies said O'Farrell had also frequented Carmel Valley Library.

The defendant has been identified by deputies as a resident of both Rancho Cucamonga and Solana Beach.

The musical icon Carlos Santana is giving a formerly homeless man a new shot at an old dream.

Santana, who lived in Tijuana while growing up, has recorded a new album with original members of his band including Marcus Malone, a percussionist who was living on the streets of Oakland until the two were reunited by KRON reporter Stanley Roberts by chance.

Roberts was filming a story about illegal trash dumping in Oakland in December 2013 for his "People Behaving Badly" segment when he encountered Malone among the ruins, stopping to talk to him. He soon learned (and later verified) that Malone was an original member of the Santana Blues Band.

After Roberts' report aired, Santana took to the streets of East Oakland to try to locate Malone. After a few failed attempts, his manager contacted Roberts via Facebook. Video of Santana and Malone subsequently reuniting thanks to Roberts went viral.

Santana soon told CNN that he had written a song called "Magnificent Malone" for Malone to record with him, but Malone told Roberts in August 2014 that it hadn't yet happened, he was still on hard times and he had a "new distance" between him and Santana.

“I’m keeping the faith that whatever has created this new distance between us, too shall pass," Malone wrote. "I know that he’s a champion of righteousness and a highly spiritual man and a supporter of many humanitarian causes. So to entertain that this was a publicity stunt is unfathomable.”

Luckily, it wasn't.

"It sounds great," Santana told Billboard of the new album, which completed recording this year. "There's so much energy. The songs are so vibrant and I'm really, really grateful. It's just been a great joy all the way around and we can't wait for people to hear it."

Other band members on the project include Greg Rolie and Neal Schon, who both went on to form Journey.

Santana said that the album, which will be released under the name Santana IV, is scheduled to be mixed next month. He hasn't announced a release date, but he told the publication that he will tour with the group in 2016.

For one family in Sweden, a pioneering procedure has led to a baby being born from the same womb that nurtured his mother, uniting three generations.

The new mother, who lost her own uterus to cancer in her 20s, said it was "unimaginable" that she now had her own child, thanks to her mother's donated womb.

"It can't be described how happy we are," she told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. "It's everything that I hoped for and a little bit more," said the woman, who asked that she and her mother not be identified in order to protect the privacy of her 9-month-old son.

Dr. Mats Brannstrom, who is behind the revolutionary process, has ushered in four babies, all boys, with transplanted wombs; a fifth is on the way. He said there was something very special about this case: "It's one uterus bridging three generations of a family."

Before his breakthrough, there had been two attempts to transplant a womb, in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but no live births. Doctors in Britain, France, the United States and elsewhere are planning similar operations with wombs from women who have died recently, not living donors.

Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Sahlgrenska Hospital at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF, first transplanted wombs into nine women about two years ago as part of an experimental study, including the new mother, who was the first. Complications forced the removal of two of the wombs. The women in the trial were either born without a womb or had it removed due to cancer.

The new mother, in her early 30s, recalled that as hospital staffers wheeled in her mother for the transplant, "I was crying and told her I loved her and thank you for doing this."

The woman's mother (the baby's grandmother) said she immediately agreed when her daughter raised the idea.

The proud grandmother, in her mid-50s, acknowledged she has difficulty understanding the magnitude of the birth, but "at the same time, I sometimes think that I am a part of history."

The new mother underwent in vitro fertilization to make embryos using her eggs and her husband's sperm. Doctors waited a year after the transplant to ensure everything was OK. After four attempts to transfer embryos into the new womb, she got pregnant. There were no complications, and she delivered via cesarean section, as planned.

"Feeling him against my cheek was the most wonderful feeling ever," the mother said. In tribute to Brannstrom, she and her husband gave the baby the middle name of Mats.

She said they will one day tell the boy how he was conceived. "My thought is that he will always know how wanted he was," she said. "Hopefully when he grows up, uterus transplantation (will be) an acknowledged treatment for women like me and he will know that he was part of making that possible."

Brannstrom and his colleagues are planning more groundbreaking womb transplant procedures. One trial will use wombs from recently deceased women and another will employ robotic surgery to shorten the time of the 10- to 12-hour operations. Brannstrom is working with doctors in India, Singapore, Lebanon and Argentina to do womb transplants there.

Experts marvel at Brannstrom's work and described it as the biggest breakthrough in fertility medicine since IVF.

"This was impossible until Brannstrom did it," said Dr. Antonio Gargiulo, an associate reproductive endocrinologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who has not been involved in the operations. He said removing a womb is unlike any other operation and that the organ must be very delicately grafted onto the recipient's major arteries and veins.

Gargiulo said doctors need to monitor whether babies in the womb get enough nutrients from the placenta and must ensure sufficient blood flow to the arteries.

Brannstrom said the blood flow during pregnancy was normal in all four babies and that all are healthy.

The new mother and her husband are contemplating a second child; the transplanted womb was intended for two pregnancies, before being removed so the mother can stop taking rejection medications.

She said she will be forever grateful to her mother.

"The real unique thing is what me and my mom went through," she said. "It's a big thing and he and his grandmother will have this bond for the rest of their lives."

The North Carolina police officer who shot and killed an unarmed former college football player in 2013 won't be retried, an official said Friday, a week after a judge declared a mistrial in the case, NBC News reported. 

Randall "Wes" Kerrick, 29, killed Jonathan Ferrell, 24, after a traffic accident on Sept. 14, 2013, and was accused of voluntary manslaughter. Kerrick is white; Ferrell was black.

Prosecutors argued Kerrick should have used nonlethal force to subdue Ferrell, a former defensive back for Florida A&M, after Ferrell climbed out of his wrecked car and dragged himself to a nearby house to get help. The woman in the house called 911 to report a possible break-in.

Two treasure hunters who claim to have found a Nazi train filled with gold in Poland discovered it by following a map drawn up by one of the people who hid it around 70 years ago, a Polish government minister said Friday, NBC News reported. 

The map was drawn by a man who helped conceal the train at the end of World War II and passed it on "on his deathbed," Poland's Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said.

The deputy minister said officials had been able to locate the 100-yard-long military train using ground-penetrating radar. He stopped short of confirming the claim the train was filled with gold, weapons and valuable art.

According to a local rumor rumor, a German train filled with gold, gems and armaments went missing around the city of Walbrzych while it was fleeing the Red Army advancing towards Berlin in the spring of 1945.

Certain diabetes drugs can cause severe and disabling joint pain, the Food and Drug Administration warned patients on Friday.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning that the type 2 diabetes medicines sitagliptin, saxagliptin, linagliptin, and alogliptin may cause joint pain that can be severe and disabling," the agency said in a statement.

These are generic names for Januvia, Onglyza, Tradjenta, and Nesina, which are all in the same calss and work by making more insulin for the body.

The drugs are already linked with some potentially severe side-effects. Januvia, for instance, can cause a severe inflammation of the pancreas called pancreatitis that's not only excruciating but that can be deadly. Onglyza has been linked with a higher risk of heart failure.
 

Brookfield Zoo in Illinois has announced the birth of two snow leopard cubs.

The cubs, which are currently off exhibit bonding with their 4-year-old mother Sarani, are scheduled to make their public debut in mid-October.

The two females, which each weigh about 10 pounds, were born on June 16, zoo officials said. 

Sarani and her 5-year-old mate, Sabu, arrived at the zoo in October 2011 from Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls and Cape May County Park & Zoo in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

Snow leopards are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and experts say their numbers are declining. The Snow Leopard Trust estimates population numbers of the elusive cat are between 4,000 and 6,500 remaining in the wild
 

A man sits in a Michigan jail while his 1-year-old daughter awaits her next round of chemotherapy.

Brian Randolph, 23, told police he robbed a bank to help pay for his baby daughter’s cancer treatments because her insurance had been canceled. He was charged with armed robbery and bank robbery following an arrest on Aug. 14 in Detroit. 

"As a parent, I can understand. I want the best for my child too. If all this was supposed to go towards the child's care, why is he is spending money on nice things for himself?” Lt. Chris Sovik of the South Lyon Police Department told NBC Owned Stations. 

Randolph is accused of robbing the Vibe Credit Union in South Lyon of $8,173 on Aug. 12. He allegedly entered the bank with glasses and a baseball cap, passed a note to a teller that stated he wanted $20,000 and had a shotgun in his pants, according to the Detroit Free Press.

He was apprehended by the Oakland County Violent Crime Task Force in a rental car with just over $3,000 in cash and designer clothing on Aug. 14. Randolph is being held on a $500,000 cash bond and his next court date has been scheduled for Sept. 2.

A Go Fund Me account was set up by Asia Dupree, the mother of Randolph’s child, for the baby's battle against retinoblastoma. As of Aug. 28, $29,363 has been raised.
 

Over the past three months, NBC 7 has reported on four suspected DUI crashes in San Diego County that resulted in deaths – from a devoted rancher killed in a head-on hit-and-run, to a mother of three killed while walking to Cowles Mountain.

According to local law enforcement agencies – including the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (SDSO) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) east San Diego sector – there were a total of five deadly DUI crashes on city streets and highways between June 1 and Aug. 27, 2015.

Of those five cases, three were reported on city streets under the SDPD’s jurisdiction, while the other two cases were on highways under the jurisdiction of CHP East.

NBC 7 reached out to other local agencies for statistics on deadly DUI crashes within that same date range, including the North County and Border sectors of CHP and local police departments in Carlsbad, Oceanside, National City, El Cajon, La Mesa, Chula Vista, Coronado and Escondido.

CHP’s Border sector, as well as the Carlsbad, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, Chula Vista and Coronado police departments all reported zero deadly DUI crashes. The National City and El Cajon police departments did not immediately respond to NBC 7’s request.

CHP North County said it had investigated six deadly DUI collisions since January 2015, but could not specify if any of those cases fell within the period of June 1 to Aug. 26.

NBC 7 took a look at deadly DUI crash figures for that same date range in 2013 and 2014.

SDPD, SDSO and CHP East reported a combined total of six deadly DUI crashes for that time period in 2013: two investigated by SDPD, one by SDSO and three by CHP East. The Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) also handled one deadly DUI collision during that time.

In 2014, those agencies investigated a combined total of four deadly DUI accidents within the same date range: one by SDPD, two by SDSO and one deadly bicycling DUI investigated by CVPD.

Meanwhile, other police departments – Escondido, Carlsbad, La Mesa and Coronado – all reported zero deadly DUI crashes during those dates in 2013 and 2014. The Oceanside, El Cajon and National City police departments have not yet provided their stats for those years, and CHP North County and Border sectors also did not respond to NBC 7’s request for those stats.

Local law enforcement agencies said they have not noticed a significant increase in deadly DUI crashes over the past few years.

San Diego law enforcement agencies said they continue to operate DUI checkpoints across the county on a consistent basis in an effort to get intoxicated drivers off the road and prevent DUI-related crashes and deaths.

According to SDPD Traffic Division Officer Mark McCullough, the Traffic Division has launched a new program that aims to show local teenagers exactly what happens during a DUI arrest, and the consequences that follow.

McCullough said the Teen Alcohol Awareness Program (T.A.A.P.) is an effort to reach out to teens before they start driving. In the class, teens are taken to a working DUI checkpoint during late-night hours and debriefed at a police station.

McCullough said the first T.A.A.P. classes were held on July 25 and Aug. 15. There was so much interest from the public for the classes, the Traffic Division agreed to host another class on Aug. 27 to accommodate the requests.

“We have a full class slated and our funding agency, The California Office of Traffic Safety, will be there as well to look at the class first-hand,” McCullough told NBC 7.

The deadly DUI crashes covered by NBC 7 over the summer season, thus far, include a July 22 crash in the North County involving suspected drunk driver Anthony Rodriguez, 30, and victim Enid Diana Mayer-Sheaf, 61.

In that incident, SDPD Lt. Leonard Flake said Rodriguez crossed a center divider in a Fiat 500 while heading east on Carmel Valley Road, north of State Route 56. As Rodriguez neared Camino Del Sur, he slammed into a Chevrolet Nova traveling in the opposite direction being driven by Mayer-Sheaf.

Mayer-Sheaf died at the scene, and Rodriguez was arrested on suspicion of DUI. The victim left behind a devastated husband and 22-year-old son.

"The horn has been sounded many, many times for many years continually about the perils of drinking and driving," said Lt. Flake that day at the scene of the crash. “Yet here is another example of what frequently occurs when people make the choice to drink and then get behind the wheel.”

At a July 30 arraignment, prosecutors said Rodriguez had been to a Padres game and bars in downtown San Diego and Pacific Beach in the hours before the deadly crash. Based on the DUI suspect’s height and weight, prosecutors said they believe he had close to 10 drinks that day.

Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to DUI causing death, gross vehicular manslaughter and having a blood alcohol level in excess of 0.08 causing injury. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.

Two weeks later, on Aug. 5, a deadly DUI crash in Bonsall took the life of Escondido resident Juan Corza Gonzalez, 62 – a hard-working rancher, father and grandfather to 11 grandchildren.

Gonzalez was killed in a crash on Old Highway 395 just before 5:30 a.m. when suspected drunk driver Garrett Gelrud, 34, drifted across the double yellow lines as he approached a curve on the rural stretch of road. Gelrud slammed his Chevy Suburban head-on into Gonzalez’s Nissan Versa, the impact killing Gonzalez at the scene, CHP officials said.

An Escondido couple witnessed the wreck as they drove on Old Highway 395, but they could not avoid striking the back of Gonzalez’s Nissan. The couple sustained minor injuries.

Gelrud – suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol – fled the scene of the deadly crash on foot. Just after 6 a.m., CHP officials received calls from citizens reporting Gelrud walking barefoot down the road. Minutes later, Gelrud was detained by officials at a nearby gas station.

He was arrested and charged on suspicion of DUI. Gelrud – who has prior DUIs on his record – had a readiness hearing on Aug. 27. He’s currently jailed at the Vista Detention Facility with bail set at more than $3 million.

A little over one week later, on Aug. 13, wife and mother of three, Rocio De Anda Leamon, 38, was killed by suspected drunk driver Joshua Taylor, also 38.

Leamon, who had the right of way, was crossing Navajo Road and Golfcrest Drive in San Carlos just before 6:30 p.m. when Taylor failed to stop at a red traffic light, slamming his Chevy Silverado into Leamon.

Leamon was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died a short time later. She was on her way to Cowles Mountain for her daily hike at the time of the suspected DUI crash. Her widowed husband told NBC 7 they were happily married for 20 years.

Taylor, charged with four counts, including first-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter, is slated to appear in court on Sept. 29.

Finally, on Aug. 22, another suspected DUI crash claimed the lives of two young women in Bay Park.

Officials said Antony Schoenle, 20, was driving a 2000 Dodge Stratus accompanied by passengers Lupe Acosta and Lizzy Garcia around 7:30 a.m. in the 4800 block of Friars Road near Pacific Highway.

Schoenle, accused of driving under the influence, lost control, slammed into a curb, drove onto an embankment and crashed into a large boulder. Flames engulfed the mangled car.

Schoenle managed to escape the flaming wreckage, but Garcia, Acosta and a puppy couldn’t get out and died in the car, police said.

Schoenle was hospitalized with injuries and burns. He was arraigned from a hospital bed at UCSD Medical Center on Aug. 26, and subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of felony manslaughter, felony DUI and providing false information.

Prosecutors said the underage driver had allegedly been partying for 12 hours straight before the deadly crash, using alcohol and drugs, before getting behind the wheel.

Schoenle is facing five counts, including two charges of vehicular manslaughter, and is being held at San Diego Central Jail on a bail of $2 million. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 1 and Sept. 29.

In the fight against drunk driving, the non-profit Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) continues to be a well-known resource.

MADD operates an affiliate office in San Diego and hosts “Victim Impact Panels” locally at the Chula Vista Courthouse Jury Lounge, the El Cajon Courthouse Jury Lounge, the San Diego Hall of Justice Jury Lounge and the Vista Courthouse Jury Lounge.

The panels include victims who were injured in impaired driving crashes or loved ones of those who were killed or injured in a DUI crash. Speakers describe how those crashes have impacted their personal lives. The panels, according to the MADD website, are designed to expose drunk drivers and potential impaired drivers to the real impact a DUI can have on others.

MADD says judges, probation officers and military commanders require convicted DUI offenders to attend a Victim Impact Panel as an element of their sentences.

The panels are held seven times per month across the aforementioned locations in San Diego, with three of the panels held in Spanish. For more information on MADD San Diego County, call (858) 564-0780.

A pilot died Friday after his propeller-driven stunt plane crashed while he was practicing tricks for a weekend air show in New York's Hudson Valley.

The plane crashed around 2 p.m. at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, where the New York Air Show is scheduled to take place this weekend

The pilot was the only person in the plane, an experimental aircraft owned by Andrew Wright, of Austin, Texas, said New York State Police Trooper Steven Nevel.

Aviation journalist Benjamin Granucci, of the blog NYC Aviation, tweeted that the plane appeared to be a single-engine Giles G-202.

He said the plane was making a practice run for the weekend's events. He said that it appeared the aircraft crashed into the ground after coming out of a dive.

A woman at the air show box office said the show will go on as scheduled.