Suspect Casey Tschida, 32, was taken into custody more than a thousand miles away, in Happy Valley, Ore. Detectives allege that he’s responsible for killing local Jennifer Krajnak, 30, in the early hours of Thursday morning in Lemon Grove.
According to Lt. Glenn Giannantonio, one shell casing was found on the ground near Krajnak at the crime scene. She was rushed to Mercy hospital, but did not survive her injuries.
On Saturday, Sheriff’s Homicide Investigators gave an outline of the events leading to Krajnak’s murder.
Detectives say Krajnak and Tschida were acquaintances socializing at a bar in Lemon Grove prior to her murder. The two left the bar at separate times.
As Krajnak was walking home on Pacific Avenue, detectives say Tschida approached her and allegedly shot her once in the head. He left her lying in the street.
Tschida then fled in his truck to his mother’s home in Happy Valley, Ore.
At this point, investigators say the motive for the murder remains unknown.
Tschida was taken into custody by the Portland Police Bureau. San Diego Sheriff’s Homicide investigators are making their way to Oregon to continue their investigation and take the necessary steps to get Tschida back to San Diego.
Officials are asking anyone with information about Krajnak’s murder to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 974-2321 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
Check back for updates on these latest developments.
A man was arrested Monday morning after leading police on a chase that resulted in an officer crashing and being injured, according to officials.
The officer attempted to pull a driver over who failed to stop when the plates of the vehicle were confirmed as stolen. The suspect then led officers on a chase through southbound I-5 to state Route 54.
The suspect and officer then crashed into a concrete wall. The man fled the scene, but police were able to detain him.
Officials said the Coronado Police officer involved in the crash was in pain, so they took him to the hospital. His name and injuries have yet to be released, though officials say his injuries are not life-threatening.
"I'll be happy to talk to you," Filner said to Gloria during the meeting. "This is not a staff decision. This is right now between you and I. And I'll be happy to meet with you any time, any minute, any second."
Gloria responded that he was "running the council meeting at this time," and could not meet with Filner.
"Then give it to somebody else to run, or we'll meet another day," Filner said. "I'm telling you, this is not a staff issue thing."
"Very good, Mr. Mayor," Gloria responded. "I'll be happy to meet with you directly. Ms. Lighter, would you mind taking over the Council meeting?"
The meeting was briefly adjourned. Filner and Gloria later returned to announce they'll keep working toward agreement on the appointments to SANDAG and other agency boards.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith spoke with NBC 7 San Diego, saying Filner will need to adjust to his new role.
"I want to work with him, but he needs to stick to being mayor," he said. "And we're going to do our very best to work through it all, make sure our roles are clear."
Goldsmith also said Filner will need to change to be an effective mayor.
"I want him to succeed, and I want to work with him on his policy ideas," he said. "We're here to help. But we all have to play our role. And part of his role is leadership."
Gloria or Filner did not respond for comment on this story.
A power outage affected customers in Rancho Bernardo after a car hit a power box and fled the scene.
The crash happened just before 8 p.m. Tuesday near Rancho Bernardo Road and Bernardo Center Drive, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The driver hit the power box, causing a small fire. Fire crews arrived to knock down the fire. A HazMat team also responded due to 15 to 30 gallons of mineral oil spilled near the box.
After the crash, a power outage was reported in the area. An outage map of the area showed 2 outages and several hundred customers without power.
One man working at a convenience store near the crash said heard a loud boom and then the lights went out. Other residents said they were eating dinner when the lights went out. They were anxious about the power being out on such a cold night.
The power was restored to all but about 100 customers by 10:30 p.m., according to SDG&E.
Police said the driver of the car that hit the power box fled after the crash. Officers caught up with the driver shortly after, and said they believed he was under the influence.
Authorities are on the scene providing traffic control.
Laurel Elementary School was placed on lockdown Tuesday after receiving a report of a threat, the sheriff's department said.
The elementary school on 1410 Laurel Street in Oceanside was placed on lockdown after authorities said they received a report that a person with a gun near the campus, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
According to Oceanside Unified School District spokesperson Steve Lombard, three female students alerted the school to the threat. At least one of the students was a third-grader at the school.
The girls said they were walking near the campus at about noon when a disheveled-looking man approached them and told them to "run." The girls ran away and reported the incident.
One of the students told authorities that she thought the man was carrying a rifle, however, the other two didn't recall seeing a weapon.
Officers on the scene say they don't believe the suspect was actually carrying a rifle, Lombard said. They called off the search shortly after the lockdown was lifted.
Officers began clearing the classrooms in the school at about 1:30 p.m. They said some of the students were taken into bathrooms by teachers. Parents were called to the campus to pick up their children.
Tuesday's threat was the second in less than a month. On December 21, Alex Paul Rodriquez, 61, was arrested after officials said he left a threatening message for staff at Laurel Elementary School.
The message was left one day prior and said there would be a shooting at the school later that morning according to police. Officers claim the phone ended with "maniacal laughter."
As a result, the school was placed on lockdown and increased police presence was on the school campus.
Parents arrived to the campus again Tuesday, concerned at the amount of threats the school has been receiving in such a short amount of time, and so close to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
One frightened parent told NBC 7 she did not want to send her daughter back to school. Many other parents said they were just anxious to get their children home.
Recent incidents like this one and several other threats reported on in the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy have shed a light on school security and the question of whether more officers should be on campus.
In a previous article examining the possibility of more officers at San Diego County schools, a district official said that Oceanside Unified School District oversees 23 schools and has four officers. Additionally the school employs 34 Campus Security Assistants, but they aren’t armed.
A huge apartment fire in Clairemont Tuesday morning displaced nearly two dozen residents and caused over $1 million in damage.
Firefighters responded to the 2-alarm fire after midnight at an apartment complex on the 3000-block of Caminito Aguilar, according to the San Diego Fire Department.
Ten adults and four children were evacuated from the building. They left with little but the clothes on their backs, knowing many of their posessions might be destroyed.
A woman and her two teenage daughters were trapped inside the building as it began filling with smoke and flames.
"They were terrified," said neighbor James Anderson. "They were like 'help us help us' and smoke was billowing out."
Officer Zach Bradley was smart to check if anyone was trying to get out the back of the apartment building on Mt. Aguilar Drive. He saw the three women calling for help from a window on the second floor.
"I told them to jump out of the window and as they did I caught them," Bradley said.
He added that they weren't heavy -- each probably about 100 pounds each. However witnesses and neighbors were touched by heroicism.
"He's definitely a hero," Anderson said. "He was definitely thinking on his toes to be back there."
Paramedics transported four people to Kaiser and UCSD Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
The fire department said four apartments were completely destroyed in the fire. Investigators determined the blaze was caused by a grease fire when a woman cooked French fries. Damage to the complex is estimated at $1.1 million.
And some of the damages were more than just material.
Andrey Borobigskiy told NBC 7 that he lost most of his belongings and his 6 month old kitten, shadow.
"My cat got left behind," he said. "He pretty much suffocated in my room."
While he regrets losing his pet and belongings, he said it could have been much worse.
"It sucks, but it's better than losing my life," he said.
The Red Cross is helping to relocate the families. Some residents said they are staying at other apartments in the complex.
The Tenants Legal Center of San Diego pointed to this fire as a reminder of the importance of renter's insurance.
Experts say, legally, if a tenant accidentally starts a large fire like this one, he or she could be personally responsible for everyone's lost property.
Renter's insurance is not required by California state law but it can help cover accidents like these.
It has all the means of transportation, a trolley line, buses and taxi service.
But with these services scattered around in one congested area, traffic flow at the San Ysidro port of entry is anything but smooth.
For a lot of commuters, it's frustrating.
“It doesn't seem very organized over here it would make more sense if they had one place for everything. Everything is mixed up it seems at the border and they should get their acts straight,” said Eddie Michaelly, who crosses the border to see a dentist.
But those complaints are not falling on deaf ears. Elisa Arias is the Principal Planner for SANDAG.
She says the organization has launched a new study with the City of San Diego to help ease traffic flow in San Ysidro.
One of the possibilities is to build an Intermodal Transit Center.
“The idea would be that the San Ysidro Intermodal Transit Center could host all those different transit uses and be a landmark destination and provide convenient service for transit users,” said Arias.
Although that is just one of the ideas being tossed around it is already gaining support.
“If people had a choice as to whether to ride the bus and trolley. Then people who aren't going so far might choose the bus as opposed to getting on the trolley when it's crowded,” said Andrea Spurgon who takes the trolley to the border several times a week.
The study is still in the works so nothing is concrete. At this point there are no cost estimates either.
SANDAG says they want to listen to the community and hear their thoughts.
A total of 143 cases were reported the week ending Jan. 5. This was a 77 percent increase from the prior week, when 81 cases were reported, according to the San Diego County news center.
The Center for Disease Control also recommends everyone 6-months and older should get a flu vaccine every year should be vaccinated.
CDC offers these tips to avoid getting sick:
Wash your hands often. Use soap and water. But if they are not available, hand sanitizer will suffice.
Try not to touch your eyes, nose and mouth too much. That’s how germs spread.
Nearly half of California's children live in poverty or "perilously close" to it, according to a new report that warns about a trend of increasing childhood poverty in the state.
The report from nonprofit advocacy group the Center for the Next Generation, released Tuesday, said that children live in poverty at twice the rate of California seniors.
"We’ve taken steps to provide our seniors with some level of assurance that they’ll be cared for in their later years," said Ann O’Leary, vice President and director of the Children and Families Program at the center and co-author of the new report. "California’s grandparents should ask why their grandkids don’t get the same treatment."
Based on census data, the report found 21.6 percent of California children live in poverty, compared to 15.5 percent of the overall state population.
Fewer than 1 in 10 seniors live in poverty, the report found.
Between 2006 and 2011, the childhood poverty rate increased by 4 points – a 21 percent increase, according to the report. During the same time, only five California counties showed a decrease in child poverty rates, while 16 counties showed declining rates for seniors.
For Hispanics, California's fastest-growing demographic group, nearly one in three children lives at or below the poverty line.
And, using a broader definition – household incomes at 200 percent or less of the federal poverty line, which is about $23,000 for a family of four – the report found that nearly half of California children are in poverty.
The report breaks poverty rates down county by county, showing that Lake County, in Northern California, has the state's highest childhood poverty rate of 37.9 percent. Rural Calaveras County in the Sierra Nevada has the lowest rate, of 3.7 percent, followed by two San Francisco Bay Area counties: wealthy Marin and San Mateo counties.
Here are the 2011 childhood poverty rates for Southern California, followed by the rate change since 2008, based on census data:
Imperial County: 31.2 percent, +13.2 percent
Los Angeles County: 24.3 percent, +12 percent
Orange County: 16.3 percent, +28.5 percent
Riverside County: 21.8 percent, +34.3 percent
San Bernardino County: 24.9 percent, +32.1 percent
San Diego County: 18.3 percent, +19.3 percent
Ventura County: 14.9 percent, +22.4 percent
There is a correlation between high education rates and low poverty rates, the report found. Single-mother households are also disproportionately affected by poverty, it stated.
The report also warns that, by one federal measure, California has a higher percentage of residents in poverty than any other state in the nation.
Using the U.S. Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, 23.5 percent of Californians are in poverty – and only Hawaii and the District of Columbia come close to matching that rate, the report states. The measure takes into account tax-related factors, benefits and housing prices to examine poverty in greater detail.
"These numbers show that the state’s level of poverty, under this new measure, it is at near crisis levels," the report states.
The report recommends increased funding for high-poverty school district and improved access to social service benefits such as food stamps.
Police said the warehouse, which just finished housing production of the movie “Breacher,” was burglarized on Christmas Day and also on New Years Day.
The thieves broke in through the back door and pulled valuable copper wiring from switch boxes and out of the ceiling and walls.
During the second robbery, an alarm went off, alerting police to the break-in. When they arrived, the suspects fled on foot. They left behind their car, which had copper wiring and tools inside.
Electricians fixed the wiring in time for production to go on as scheduled, and the movie is on track for its December 2013 release.
ESPN issued a public apology on Tuesday for announcer Brent Musburger’s on-air gushing during the BCS championship game over Katherine Webb, the 2012 Miss Alabama and girlfriend of University of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron. But in true pageantry fashion, Webb deflected the attention back to the Crimson Tide’s big win on Monday against Notre Dame.
“I am honestly really shocked that it took off like that,” Webb told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show. “I think that we need to draw back our attention to who the real winners are and that’s the Alabama football team.”
Webb’s popularity took off during the BCS championship game when Musburger’s on-air fawning led to an onslaught of Twitter followers for the beauty queen. During the broadcast, Musburger commented on Webb's looks as the camera repeatedly panned to her location in the stands. “Wow, I’m telling you quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women,” he said. Webb, however, had no idea about her new-found fame as her phone died before the game started, she said.
“During the game, a few of my friends that were sitting beside me turned around and said ‘Oh my gosh, Katherine, look what’s on the Internet’ and it was a screenshot me and A.J.’s mom Dee Dee Bonner,” Webb told Lauer.
ESPN apologized on Tuesday, but she said people need to cut Musburger some slack.
"I think the media has been unfair to him," she said. "The fact that he said we were beautiful and gorgeous, I don't see why any woman wouldn't be flattered by that."
As of Wednesday morning, Webb had garnered over 224,000 Twitter followers. Before the game, she only had a few hundred Twitter fans.
As the nation fights its way through the worst flu season in more than a decade, health care workers across the country are taking extreme—in some cases unprecedented--measures to combat its spread.
At the Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital in Allentown, Penn., they've erected an 1,100-square-foot tent to specifically treat those with flu-like symptoms, a measure they haven’t taken since the H1N1 outbreak of 2009. Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., the tent can treat six patients at a time, has a staff of three, plus immediate access to an emergency room doctor, should the need arise.
"It's important when you have a large number of influenza patients coming into your emergency department and they're waiting in a waiting room, you need to be able to segregate them the best that you possibly can," said Dr. David Burmeister.
At St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn., Dr, Rolf Knoll says they've seen a ten-fold increase in flu cases. In an effort to hold the flu at bay, St. Francis has for the first time ever posted signs asking people not to visit patients if they have a fever or cough.
Other area hospitals and medical centers have gone even further, allowing only adult visitors.
"[We're] committed to ensuring the safety of our patients, visitors and staff during flu season and especially during this unusual flu season," says Deborah Parker, Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services & Chief Clinical Officer for Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which is limiting visitors to adults at all its hospitals. "We recognize that these temporary changes to our visitor policies may be inconvenient and disappointing to some, but they are in the best interest of everyone."
Further up I-95, Boston Mayor Tom Menino has declared a "flu emergency," in the wake of 700 reported cases of flu, accounting for 4 percent of area hospital visits.
"This is not only a health concern, but also an economic concern for families, and I'm urging residents to get vaccinated if they haven't already," said Menino via a press release. "It's the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family. If you're sick, please stay home from work or school."
Lyn Finelli, who heads the surveillance and response team that monitors influenza for the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said this year's flu season was about five weeks ahead of the average, and CDC spokesman Tom Skinner fears the spread is "still accelerating."
In California, where the flu outbreak has not yet been quite as severe, medical professionals are steeling themselves.
In Canada, the government has already released its stockpile of Tamiflu in anticipation of a shortage. Here in the U.S. that's not yet been a problem, though demand for Tamiflu is definitely spiking, even in California.
"We want to make sure we save it so we have enough supplies for the people that are most at risk--elderly people, people with chronic health conditions," explained Dr. Melody Mendiola of Hennepin County Medical Center.
This flu season has already seen more than 200,000 people hospitalized across the country. The CDC recommends that on a personal level you can help by getting immunized and washing your hands, among other measures.
And there's even a Facebook app called Who Gave Me the Flu that searches your friends' status updates for key words like "cough" and "sneeze" to see who may have infected you, or you can sign up for Flu Near You, a map administered by Healthmap of Boston Children’s Hospital, that tracks the spread of the illness and its symptoms.
Ferry rider Ashley Furman describes being tossed in the air and knocked unconscious when the Seastreak ferry crashed into Pier 11 in Manhattan Wednesday morning.
One billion people use Facebook around the world. Its reach is undisputed and unparalleled, but its impact on one specific community has opened up doors to a new world – for the deaf.
Christina Teani, 34, of South San Francisco is a teacher for special needs students. She understands putting in that extra bit of effort because she was born with what she calls “an invisible disability” - unable to hear without wearing a hearing aid.
“You can often feel like that sometimes you are not good enough, you don’t feel like you’re part of a group,” Teani explained. “Human relationships are all about intimacy, getting to know people, feeling like you belong in a group and if you’re not able to connect, you emotionally feel left out.”
But her life has changed, much like it has for her deaf friend, Sarah McBride of Palo Alto.
“With Facebook, I’m able to communicate with my friends through chat,” she said.
These women say the social media site has opened up a whole new world to them, offering up not only quick chats with friends, but the ability to share memories through pictures and videos – especially satisfying for them because it’s one of the first times they’ve been able to communicate the same way the hearing community does.
So when the opportunity came up to visit the company that made it happen, they didn’t hesitate. Together with friends, they took tour of Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park to celebrate the changes they’ve experienced in their lives.
“That’s what I like about Facebook," Teani said. "We’re all on the same playing field we haven’t had before.”
Kathy Sussman, a teacher to deaf children for more than four decades, said watching her kids struggle with a disconnect to the outside world was frustrating – aggravating, even.
“Because these kids are smart, they have every opportunity, but there was that piece that created a barrier for them. Now those barriers are coming down,” she said.
One of those barriers was the difficulty of expressing even the most basic of emotions.
“Nervous or sad or something. TTY doesn’t show any of the emotional. Now on Facebook, I can put a happy face or a sad face, or a heart shape.”
TTY or tele-typewriter was the device deaf people relied on for decades to communicate with one another. It would flash lights instead of ring. The device features a keyboard with up to 30 characters, display screen and a modem. The user types in the letters which turn into electrical signals; at the other end, those signals turn back into letters that pop up on a display screen, sometimes printing out the message on paper. These women said the process made it difficult to connect deeply with others.
“I find that I am learning things about people that I’ve gone to school with all my life, that I had no idea about,” Teani said.
Many expressed one thing: for them, being deaf is not and was never a handicap, just a different life with a different perspective.
Teani and McBride agree that Facebook has helped marry two worlds they once felt was distant.
It’s enabled a big change witnessed by McBride’s 13-year-old daughter, Samantha.
“She’s deaf so she got isolated and it was hard for everyone to communicate with her,” the teen said about her mother. “I’ve seen her happier because she’s made more friends."
Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, the greatest pitcher and hitter of baseball's "Steroid Era," were denied entry to the Hall of Fame today, as dozens of voters refused to look past their connection to performance-enhancing drugs.
For the first time since 1996, no players were inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.
Craig Biggio was named on 68 percent of the ballots, more than any other player, but still short of the 75 percent required for enshrinement. A seven-time all-star who enjoyed a 20-year career with the Houston Astros, during which he compiled 3060 hits and 668 doubles, Biggio becomes only the second player, after Rafael Palmeiro, with more than 3000 hits not to be voted in on his first ballot.
With 569 ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, 427 ballots were required to make it in. Despite posting career numbers that far exceed even the most stringent Hall of Fame standards, Clemens and Bonds fell far short, with 37.6 and 36.2 percent of the vote, respectively.
In the weeks leading up to today's announcement, many baseball writers talked about how conflicted they were about this year's Hall of Fame ballot, the first to include some the the biggest names of the Steroid Era. Some have vowed never to vote for known steroid users, others have said they want to make players from this era wait a year or two, and some just don't care about drug use.
It's the first time since 1996 that the no players were elected, though six players on that year's ballot -- Phil Neikro, Jim Rice, Ron Santo, Bruce Sutter, Tony Perez and Don Sutton -- eventually made it in.
Both Clemens and Bonds were clearly being punished by a number of writers for carrying the taint of steroids. Both were named in the 2007 Mitchell Report, the result of former Senator George Mitchell's investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.
Clemens, who won 354 games, seven Cy Young Awards and two World Series titles, has been accused of PED use by former teammate Jose Canseco, as well as former trainer Brian McNamee, allegations the pitcher has denied to everyone who will listen, including Congress. Despite multiple perjury indictments, he has never been found guilty.
Bonds, the game's career and single-season home run king, has admitted to using two substances, "the cream" and "the clear," that were found to be steroids, but testified under oath that he thought they were flax seed oil and an arthritis treatment. Bonds was later convicted on charges of obstruction of justice, and sentenced to 30 days house arrest, two years probation and 250 hours of community service.
Other notable first-timers on this year's ballot who fell short of induction include:
Mike Piazza, a 12-time all-star who played the bulk of his career for the Mets and the Dodgers, and was the greatest-hitting catcher in the game's history. He appeared on 57.8 percent of ballots. Piazza has never tested positive for steroids or been formally accused, but has been dogged by rumors of PED use for years.
Sammy Sosa, who along with Mark McGwire electrified a nation with their 1998 pursuit of Roger Maris' single-season home record. Eighth all-time with 608 home runs, and the only man to hit more than 60 home runs in a season three times, Sosa's name appeared on a list published by The New York Times in 2009 of players who tested positive in 2003 for an unidentified PED. He received 12.5 percent of the vote.
Curt Schilling, a 20-game winner for championship teams in Arizona and Boston. The best starting pitcher in playoff history, with the best strikeout-to-walk ratio since 1900, Schilling likely lost votes thanks to his low win total, 216. He appeared on 38.8 percent of ballots.
Two long-time holdovers, Jack Morris and Dale Murphy, also came up short. Morris, winner of 254 games and three World Series titles, was on his 14th ballot, earning 67.7 percent. Murphy, a two-time MVP who enjoyed his finest years with the Atlanta Braves, was in his 15th and final year of eligibility.
The 2014 ballot includes Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina, all among the best of their age, none of them with any connection to steroid use. With voters only allowed to list 10 players on their ballot each year, the BBWAA could be looking at a backlog in the near future.
