An assisted living facility employee was suspended without pay after a video of a patient getting into a shower surfaced online.

The director of the LifeHOUSE Assisted Living Facility in Vista confirmed they have opened an internal investigation into the incident and the employees involved may face more disciplinary action.

An NBC 7 viewer sent in a photo that shows an elderly patient from the shoulders up, topless and about to get a shower with a care assistant behind her.

The viewer said she took the picture from a video posted to Snapchat – a social media network that automatically deletes posts after 24 hours. In the video, a caregiver was laughing at the patient, according to the viewer.

The assisted living facility’s director said the employee who allegedly posted the video worked there for about a year and has been suspended. The other person, seen standing behind woman, will also face consequences if the allegations are confirmed.

Joni Lisi, the daughter of another patient, told NBC 7 she had to move her mother out of LifeHOUSE several years ago.

“My mom was here about four or five years ago and we -- my sister Michelle -- had to remove her from this place because they were putting her on morphine and just having her be dead. It was awful,” Lisi said.

The facility’s director said, “We are currently completing our own internal investigation with respect to these allegations. LifeHOUSE's mission, vision and values are based on resident compassion, clinical care and safety, which is always of the utmost importance.”

NBC 7 asked the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department if its investigators were involved, and a spokesperson said they cannot comment on if there’s a criminal investigation into the incident.
 

Family and friends of a skateboarder killed in El Cerrito one week ago are pleading for witnesses to come forward and help bring justice.

Jonathan Cortez died on Oct. 9, just two days before his 16th birthday, after witnesses reported seeing him skating down the 3600 block of 54th Street.

San Diego police say Cortez was the victim of a hit-and-run crash, but a week later, there have been no arrests.

On Friday, a rally filled the street in El Cerrito, with protesters demanding justice for the teen.

“I still don't get why he was taken from me so soon,” his mother said. “It was his birthday. I just want answers.”

On Monday, the owner of a green minivan, for which police had been searching, turned himself into officials. The van with front end damage was towed away by police, but the driver was not arrested.

Complicating the investigation, police believe Cortez was hit by multiple cars before his body was found.

“Anything is possible at this point; we are leaving all options open,” said SDPD Lt. Scott Wahl. “Certainly if someone was in the area and could have possibly been involved -- thought maybe they hit an animal or something in the street and they were not aware -- to please come forward and talk with us.”

He said more witnesses, drivers or residents need to come forward to solve this death. Anyone in the area of 54th Street between Chollas Parkway and University Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 is asked to talk with police.

Even if a detail does not seem significant to you, it could prove useful to police, according to Wahl.

“I want answers and I don't get why it happened; I just want to beg anyone that has any information to please come forward,” Cortez’s mother said.

The group is planning a fundraising car wash Saturday for Cortez’s family. It will be at the Lion’s Hall on 54th Street.
 

Two Georgia ex-deputies were acquitted Friday of involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Mathew Ajibade, a mentally ill man who was tased while in restraints and then left unattended, NBC News reported.

The former officers and a jailhouse nurse were convicted of lesser charges, according to NBC affiliate WSAV.

Jason Kenny, who used the stun gun on Ajibade, was found guilty of cruelty to a prisoner, which carries a possible prison sentence of 1 to 3 years. Maxine Kenny was found guilty of falsifying records.

The nurse, Gregory Brown, was acquitted of manslaughter charges by the judge earlier in the week after an investigator admitted he had been indicted based on incorrect information about jailhouse policies.

Chris Oladapo, Ajibade's cousin, told NBC News that he was not surprised the officers were found not guilty of the top charge.

"I knew that that same system that failed Mathew would not be the system that got him justice," he said. "I had already warned my family not to expect anything.

"We expected nothing, and we got nothing."

A group of Uber drivers protested at the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Friday as part of a weekend-long strike that could take as many as 1,300 Uber drivers off the road.

As they gathered, they chanted and held signs that read, "Uber's greed puts drivers in need."

The strikers are demanding that the transportation company raise rates 60 percent nationwide and raise cancellation fees and minimum fare fees to $7.

The upset drivers also want to see Uber implement a tip option for passengers – something the company’s competitor Lyft already provides.

“There comes a point where enough is enough,” said former Uber driver Abe Husein, who says he organized the strikes. “We have to make a stand and fight for our rights.”

He continued: “Drivers are left with about 7-10 cents a mile profit, which is below minimum wage.”

Some Uber customers have said that the demands don’t seem unreasonable, adding that they would be willing to pay a little extra if it meant getting quality service in return.

“I feel like this [wage] policy has stopped them from receiving credit for their work,” said Uber customer Adrian Pintor.

Others, however, say they would quickly switch over to other ride-sharing apps if the price of a fare rises dramatically.

“If their fares go up, I just might not use it – and they’ll get no fares,” another Uber user warned.

The San Francisco strike is mirrored in other locations across the country, where protests are planned in Los Angeles and Chicago. Drivers for Uber are unable to formally unionize, however, as they are considered independent contractors.

Uber officials declined to comment directly on the strikes, instead releasing a statement saying, the company "always welcome feedback from our driver-partners."

El Cajon police officers say they apprehended two suspects who cut open a fumigation tarp and climbed in to steal from an apartment complex.

On Thursday morning, a witness reported seeing two men get into the complex, which was being fumigated for insects, in the 1000 block of S. Mollison Avenue.

When officers arrived, they surrounded the building. The suspects eventually came back out of the hole they cut in the tarp and tried to run from police.

After a short foot pursuit, police took both men into custody. They say the suspects, 18-year-old Alexis Salazar and an unnamed juvenile, were tied to several other apartment burglaries in the area.

According to El Cajon police, officers recovered stolen property like jewelry and computers.

Salazar and the minor were booked into jail and Juvenile Hall, respectively, on four counts of burglary and conspiracy to commit a felony.

Police warn that entering a building while it’s being fumigated is extremely dangerous without the proper training and protective equipment. The harmful chemicals used could cause serious illness or death.

Officers do not believe this incident is related to any ongoing burglary series.

A man who pleaded guilty to dragging his friend's body out of a hotel room in Virginia after the friend overdosed on drugs was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison.

A federal judge said she hopes the sentence will send a message to drug dealers that they're responsible for calling for help if someone overdoses.

Jason Laytham, 37, of Leesburg died in September 2014 after he overdosed on a mix of drugs including cocaine. His friend Jason Colley, 36, of Luray, sold Laytham and another man the drug in a hotel room in Ashburn, he said in a plea agreement this summer.

After using the drugs, Laytham and the other man fell unconscious, the statement of facts said. Colley dragged Laytham's body out of the room and then called for help.

When an EMS crew arrived, the other man was still unconscious in the hotel room. That man survived, but Laytham died.

Colley admitted to selling the drug but stopped short of saying that's what killed his friend. He was sentenced on Friday for tampering with evidence by moving Laytham's body.

Laytham was a Broad Run High School graduate who had a son and was engaged, his obituary said.

Outside the courthouse on Friday, Laytham's sister Erika Potter said she's still seeking justice for her brother. She said she wants Colley to be charged with selling drugs.

"It was my brother this time. It will be somebody else’s the next," she said.

A family in San Diego’s East County were terrified when they encountered the last pest you’d expect to find in a new rental house: an 8-foot boa constrictor.

The landlord at the La Mesa home said when the previous tenants moved out, they mentioned something about a lost snake but “didn’t seem concerned,” according to the Heartland Fire Rescue Department.

So as the new renters moved in to the 7000 block of Colony Drive, the landlord did not know to warn them about the serpent that lay in wait.

But on the afternoon of Oct. 10, the reptile decided to make its grand appearance. The new renter came out of her bedroom to find the huge snake slithering in her kitchen.

Taking up her children, she barricaded them and herself into a bedroom and called 911.

Heartland firefighters were the first to arrive, and before long, they had the situation well in hand.

Picking up the snake with gloved hands, the crew posed for a picture as they waited for El Cajon Animal Control officers to take it.

Animal Control, in turn, handed the snake over to Pet Kingdom in San Diego because of its great size.

According to Pet Kingdom’s reptile manager, the snake is a female Colombian red tail boa, about 8 years old.

The business currently has the animal quarantined to make sure it is healthy, and once it is checked out, it will be put up for sale, Heartland Fire officials say.

New Jersey residents and a New York animal rescue are racing to try to help a bear with an injury so severe it can only walk on its hind legs like a human.

The bear, nicknamed "Pedals" by neighbors in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, has been seen wandering near homes upright and also eating crab apples and sleeping in lawns. The bear first gained notoriety after video of him trotting down a neighborhood street was posted on YouTube.

"You see it on TV or you see it on YouTube or whatever, but to see it in person is pretty good," one resident said.

But a year after the video was posted, residents are becoming concerned that the bear, who appears to have lost weight and is often seen panting or foaming at the mouth, won't make it through the winter.

Sabrina Pugsley has had many encounters with Pedals. She has become so worried about the bear that she's led an online campaign to send him to a wildlife sanctuary Upstate.

"He just looked terrible," Pugsley said of a recent encounter. "He was panting, he had foam around his mouth. He had actually been chased around the neighborhood by a bunch of teenagers in a car." 

So far Pugsley has raised more than $22,000 as part of the online campaign. She has also collected nearly 80,000 signatures online calling on the NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife to move him.

In a statement the NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife said that the bear shouldn't be relocated to a sanctuary.

"The best course of action is to allow the animal to continue to live its life in the wild," the agency said. "The bear survived last winter's very cold and snowy weather [because it] has been able to find adequate food sources [...] without the intervention of people." 

"Leave it alone," one resident, who believed the bear shouldn't be moved out of the area, said. "It's not hurting anybody and people actually feed it. It's able to forage and take care of itself. It has been around for numerous years so it must be doing okay." 

For now, Pedals will stay a fixture of the neighborhood, crossing streets upright and appearing and disappearing behind fences and homes.

A U.S. jury on Friday ordered Apple Inc. to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating its microchip technology into some of the company's iPhones and iPads without permission, NBC News reported.

The amount was less than the $400 million the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) was claiming in damages after the jury on Tuesday said Apple infringed its patent for improving the performance of computer processors.

Apple said it would appeal the verdict, but declined to comment further.

WARF praised the verdict and said it was important to protect the university's inventions from unauthorized use. "This decision is great news," said WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen in a statement.
 

The Miami Dolphins are leading a sports-wide initiative to promote understanding, respect and equality, and to combat racism.

The Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) has launched a nationwide campaign that's using the power of sports to advance race relations. The effort was founded by Dolphins majority owner Stephen Ross.

Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill and wide receiver Greg Jennings are among several athletes who have pledged their support to the RISE initiative.

"From fans to athletes, and everybody in-between, we must help people identify and alter their behaviors to make real change," Tannehill said in a release.

Jennings added, "Our differences can bring us together if we can bond through a shared interest like sports."

Other athletes taking part in the initiative include Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Justin Tuck and DeMarcus Ware.

"While it would be unrealistic to say that RISE alone will end racism, we have the opportunity to harness the unifying power of sport and create a new paradigm," said Ross in a statement.

At RISEtoWIN.org, people are encouraged to stand up against racism and speak out against discrimination.

The "It Takes All Colors" app also encourages people to upload a photo, apply their team colors and share it across social channels.

For more information, watch the RISE public service announcement:

Chief Shelley Zimmerman has fired 11 San Diego Police Department officers in a single year, more than the former chief did in three years combined, according to new numbers released by SDPD.

NBC 7 Investigates asked for the details of those firings, but our request was denied because, according to a department spokesperson, that information can't be released to the public due to statutory exemptions under the California Public Records Act.

"We have a culture of excellence in our police department and we're holding all of our personnel accountable,” Zimmerman said.

Under Zimmerman’s watch, at least 11 officers were fired or resigned before being terminated from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015. That compares to a total of nine officers during the last three years former Chief William Lansdowne was in charge.

NBC 7 Investigates reached out to Lansdowne for reaction, but we have not heard back from him.

Zimmerman used a sports analogy to explain why some officers are not given a second chance when they break the law or violate department policy.

"If the quarterback goes out and willfully throws that ball, intentionally throws that ball to the other team, to hurt our team, then you don't play for me. You don't work for me," Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said her decision to reinstate the department’s Professional Standards Unit is the main reason for the increased number of firings.

The unit investigates citizen complaints and internal tips about possible officer misconduct. It was previously disbanded by Lansdowne under budget pressure.

"So, as soon as a piece of information comes in, they are able to immediately react to that,” Zimmerman said. “I think that is the biggest difference, that this is their full-time job and they can immediately react to it."

Through the state open records act, NBC 7 Investigates submitted a request for the names of the 11 officers and information about why they were fired. The request was denied because the department argues the information is confidential, personnel information.

"I'm not going to get into the specifics as to what each of them had done," Zimmerman told NBC 7 Investigates. But the chief said she would release information about the reasons for the firings, if state law and the Public Records Act allowed her to do so.

Donna Frye, a former San Diego city councilwoman and open-government advocate, said the chief has the discretion to at least reveal why the officers were fired without naming them.

"I do not believe that that violates any state law,” Frye said. “And I believe that the public interest outweighs the privacy interests, especially if some of those behaviors may have involved members of the public and the public has a right to know that."

Late Thursday, the chief's office did release some statistical information about 11 of those fired officers:

• One of them was a 27 year veteran.
• Another served the department for 24 years.
• A third officer had been with the department 10 months when he (or she) was fired.

Those statistics also reveal Chief Zimmerman fired five officers in a less than two month span, from May 8th to June 30th.
 

Millions of Americans woke to chilly temperatures Saturday, and many could see snow before the weekend is over, NBC News reported.

The Weather Channel reports the coldest air mass of the season has descended on the nation's Midwest and Northeast, plunging temperatures into the 30s — and even high 20s in some areas. 

Freeze watches and frost warnings stretch from Iowa south to Mississippi and east through New England, with lows Saturday night into Sunday expected to sink to freezing or below. 

 Chula Vista Police are on the scene of a shooting on the 1300 block of Santa Rita near East Palomar. 

No further information was immediately available. 

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story. 

Two Palestinians were shot dead on Saturday when they tried to stab Israelis in separate attacks in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, NBC News reported.

In the first attack, Israel's military said an Israeli civilian shot and killed a Palestinian who attempted to stab him in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Elsewhere, Israeli border police stopped to question a Palestinian man walking " suspiciously" through a neighborhood around East Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. Officers fatally shot the man when he drew a knife and tried to stab them, the spokesman said.

Recent violence has been triggered in part by Palestinians' anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine and a key national symbol for the Palestinians.

The site is also revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples.

The students of Bobier Elementary School in Vista surprised their principal and assistant principal with a flash mob on Friday.

The students, some donning cowboy hats, did the flash mob to a mariachi song in honor of National Boss Day.

The school’s officer manager said it was a fun way to show their appreciation to their newly hired principal, Jennifer Golden.

“We are blessed to have these two wonderful women "corralling our Bobier Broncos,” a note from a Bobier employee said.

In a rare admission of discipline for game officials, the NFL has suspended a side judge and moved a back judge off a prime-time game.

The NFL suspended side judge Rob Vernatchi for one game for not managing the clock properly in the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh's game at San Diego on Monday night. After a kickoff that was not returned, 18 seconds ran off the clock. The side judge is in charge of monitoring the game clock, which is kept on the stadium scoreboard.

Vernatchi "will not officiate in Week 6 as a result of the failure to notice that the game clock was incorrectly started," league spokesman Michael Signora said Thursday. Signora added Vernatchi is being taken off the field for one week and then will return to referee Pete Morelli's crew.

Such a move is unusual for the NFL, which rarely publicly reprimands game officials. Vernatchi could file a grievance through the officials' union.

"The mistake will also impact the evaluation of the other six members of the officiating crew," Signora said. "Had the side judge or any of the other six on-field officials noticed the timing error, they could have corrected it."

Signora said the status of the clock operator in San Diego, an NFL employee, is under review.

The NFL also has reassigned Greg Wilson, the back judge who missed an end-zone penalty in the final moments of Detroit's loss at Seattle the previous Monday night. Wilson did not call Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright for batting the ball out of the end zone, and Seattle held on for a 13-10 victory.

A person with knowledge of the move told The Associated Press that Wilson has been moved off Sunday night's Patriots-Colts game and will work Dolphins-Titans instead. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league has not officially announced the switch.

On Tuesday, the NFL released a statement about the mismanagement of the clock in a game Pittsburgh won 24-20 on the final play of the game.

"Because of an error by the clock operator, the game clock was incorrectly started before the Steelers' first play from scrimmage following the touchback," the statement said. "That first down snap came with 2:38 left to play instead of 2:56, a difference of 18 seconds."

Including the mess-up in Seattle, it was the second straight week the NFL acknowledged an officiating error in a nationally televised game. After the Seahawks' win, the NFL's head of officiating, Dean Blandino, said the officials made the wrong call.

A couple found dead inside a La Mesa home are believed to have been involved in a murder-suicide, police said Friday.

Police officers entered the home on Wyoming Avenue at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday to conduct a welfare check for concerned family members. They discovered the residents dead inside, officials said.

La Mesa Police Lt. Brian Stoney said one of the victims had some traumatic injuries.

On Friday, police identified Rose M. Welch, 73, as one of the deceased, adding that she was the victim of homicide. Her husband, William R. Welch, 77, died of an apparent suicide, police said.

Officials said the investigation was ongoing.

In the last three weeks four Pacific Beach businesses have been hit by burglars whp broke store windows with rocks to get in.

Two weeks ago someone broke into women’s clothing store Mimi and Red at the 5600 block of La Jolla Blvd. The week before a neighboring business was also burglarized.

“We’ve had a series of false alarms but when it was [broken glass] I knew it was for real this time because our neighbor had just been broken into the week prior,” Rhondda Begley, owner of Mimi and Red told NBC7.

She said her surveillance system captured the break-in, but from start to finish the whole incident took only about 12 seconds. Begley said detectives plan to review the footage, but doesn’t believe the suspects’ faces will be easily recognizable.  

This week burglars broke into two more businesses on nearby Turquoise Street - Chocolate Haus and Luella Boutique.They smashed the windows with rocks and stole money from the cash register around 4:30 am Tuesday morning.

“It’s going to set us back a lot. We’re going to be set back probably about a thousand dollars just for a couple hundred dollar break in…It’s hard,” Pete Close, owner of the Chocolate Haus told NBC7. Close said his business has been broken into three times in the last five years.

Detectives are investigating the burglaries. There is no update at this time on potential suspects.
 

An Army veteran shot five times during a rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, recounts how the gunman looked like "he was playing a video game and showed no emotion."

"There was a bunch of yelling that started in the other room, my teacher walked up to the door that connected our classroom and asked if everyone was OK, no one could tell what the yelling was," Chris Mintz wrote in a Facebook post, adding that the gunshots "sounded like firecrackers going off."

Mintz and his classmates ran to the library and warned others about the shooter. He than headed back towards the gunfire at Snyder Hall, unsure of the gunman's location. 

"All of a sudden, the shooter opened the classroom door beside the door to my left, he leaned half of his torso out and started shooting as I turned toward him," Mintz wrote. "The shots knocked me to the ground and felt like a truck hit me."

A San Diego man said his addiction to internet porn may have caused him to sexually assault a woman near a local shopping mall.

Adam Moore, 22, of Mira Mesa was convicted in a August 30, 2014, attack near Westfield UTC. On Friday, he was in a downtown courtroom to face a judge for sentencing.

The victim cried recalling what she said was "the unthinkable."

The woman identified in court as Jane Doe said she decided to take a walk around 8 p.m. when Moore attacked her.

He choked her and dragged her into the bushes. Jane Doe offered him her wallet but Moore refused and said he was going to rape her.

When a passerby interrupted him, Moore ran from the scene. He was arrested approximately a month later.

"If somebody hadn't come and heard my screams that night I think I would've been raped," the victim said Friday.

"I honestly thought I was going to die," she said.

Jane Doe said she is now crippled by fear, unable to go outside at night.

"I'm in a very, very dark place where I don't trust anybody," she said.

Moore also spoke in court and apologized to the victim. He said he took full responsibility for his actions. However, he said his addiction to internet porn provoked him.

"I was really desensitized to the whole situation," he said, adding that he didn't understand the consequences of his actions.

"It would've been devastating to me if a family member of mine had a similar situation happen to them," he explained.

His defense attorney told the judge that Moore was also a victim of sexual abuse as a child.

In his ruling, Judge Leo Valentine, Jr. refused to grant probation and sentenced Moore to state prison.

Prosecutors say the defendant will spend 11 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the Victims Compensation Program.