Two women were shot and injured on the streets of Little Italy after an unknown woman opened fire while attempting to steal the victims’ purses.

The San Diego Police Department said the shooting happened around 9:40 p.m. on July 27 in the 700 block of West Date Street. The suspect remained outstanding as of Friday morning as police released details of the crime for the first time.

According to investigators, the suspect confronted three women standing on the street, wielding a handgun and demanding their purses. Before the victims could react, the woman shot two of them.

Both victims were taken to nearby hospitals and are expected to survive their injuries, police said.

The suspect was spotted by witnesses getting into a light-colored mini-van driven by an unknown male accomplice. The van was last seen fleeing the area eastbound on West Date Street.

For now, police said witnesses describe the suspect as a thin, light-skinned Hispanic woman between 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-6. She had light brown hair with highlights possibly pulled back in a ponytail or bun. She wore a puffy brown jacket with a fur-line hood, dark pants and black shoes during the shooting.

The incident remains under investigation. The police department has released a composite sketch of the suspect, pictured above.

Anyone with information on her identity or whereabouts should contact the SDPD’s Central Division at (619) 744-9502 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a $1,000 reward leading to an arrest in the case.

The shooting happened in a residential section of San Diego’s popular Little Italy community, with several businesses and restaurants just blocks away.

Two people have died after two boats collided at a reservoir in San Diego's East County, according to San Diego County Sheriff's officials.

Officials say a blue and white Nitro boat was traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed into a smaller, stationary boat around 7:15 p.m. Thursday along the north arm of El Capitan Reservoir near the east shore.

Fisherman Todd Holverson was in the area called Tree Hole when he says the Nitro came speeding through the area.

"I raised my hands up at them and they raised their hands back like it was fun and games and as soon as I turned my head I heard them hit," he said.

Both boats flipped officials said, throwing all four people involved into the water.

Another boat on the water came to help and pulled two men from the smaller boat out of the water. They had minor cuts and bruises and were taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital, officials said.

A 21-year-old woman from the Nitro died in the crash. A fourth person, a 20-year-old man who was on the Nitro, was found in the water hours later.

Expert divers were on scene late Thursday preparing to look for the boater reported missing but they were being cautious because of the inherent danger involved for searchers.

Ten divers resumed the search around 9 a.m. Friday, trying to make their way through water with poor visibility.

Finally, around 12:30 p.m., the missing 20-year-old man was found dead in about 33 feet of water. 

Lerma said he was not sure if the people involved were wearing safety vests. He also said it was not known if alcohol or drugs were a factor.

The dive team expects to remain at the crash site through Friday afternoon, searching for debris evidence. 

The reservoir is located just north of Alpine and is popular with boaters.

Lerma said there is no speed limit along this section of the reservoir however the area was just converted into a no wake zone a couple months ago due to the recent drop in water levels. 

A roller coaster billed as a "maximum thrill-level," "gut-munching" ride at a Six Flags amusement park in New Jersey got stuck on its way up to the 230-foot peak, forcing passengers to exit the ride and walk down alongside the tracks. 

Officials at the Great Adventure park in Jackson said the Nitro roller coaster experienced a power failure as it was climbing up the track Friday afternoon. 

Park personnel climbed the access stairs to remove the passengers on the stuck coaster and walked them safely down to ground level, officials said. 

No one was hurt.

The ride was shut down for the remainder of Friday night. It's not clear when it will reopen. 

According to the amusement park's website, the first hill on the Nitro is 233 feet high. The coaster reaches 80 miles per hour as it zooms to the second hill, which is about 180 feet high. 

For thousands of American lawmakers, Friday marked the first day of a spell that's free of regular meetings.

They call it "legislative recess" but emphasize it's nothing like the summer down-time that schoolkids enjoy.

From Capitol Hill to state legislatures and the grass-roots halls of local government, hearing chambers will go dark for five weeks for most elected officials.

Critics suspect there will be too much slacking off during that time.

"With a legislative recess, you don't know what they're addressing, if anything,” said Hud Collins, an attorney and former San Diego mayoral candidate who frequently has scolded mayors and council members in public hearings.

"There's nothing wrong with getting a week or two of vacation as a break,” Collins added in an interview Friday. “But you don't take off four weeks, two weeks, four weeks. The total of legislative time in the city -- they have three months off."

Legislative recesses add up to about 20 weeks a year for both the San Diego City Council and County Board of Supervisors.

But their members and defenders argue that it's not real time "off", as in idle leave -- it's just an absence of official "quorum" sessions that take many hours of research, fact-finding and committee vetting before votes are cast.

Attorney Bob Ottilie, who chairs the city’s salary setting commission, insists that council members are vastly underpaid for the heavy volume of public service they undertake.

"They're working a 60-hour week outside of the legislative sessions,” Ottilie told NBC 7. “So they're doing a tremendous amount of work. In fact, arguably, they can focus better on projects and their agenda a lot better when they have some time away from the legislative sessions … the average councilmember is probably taking only one to two weeks of vacation a year."

Council President Todd Gloria said there's no shortage of business in the councilmembers’ districts and intergovernmental issues to attend to during legislative recesses.

"When we don't have meetings, that's really what gets freed up,” he noted, citing -- as examples -- consultations with council and city staff, site surveys for projects under development and responding to constituents on problems such as street light repairs.

"I can just tell you myself, I'll spend the month meeting with constituents, going to community events, working on legislation to bring forth in the fall,” Gloria continued. “So it really isn't a time to put your feet up and relax. I'd like to do that. The reality is that this is the eighth largest city in the country; work continues to go on. I expect my Councilmembers will be working pretty hard this summer."

As it turns out, the Council's in special session on Thursday to consider a tentative settlement of the "Jane Doe" lawsuit against the police department, and renew routine emergency declarations.

An expected mayoral veto of the just-adopted minimum wage ordinance also figures to be dealt with.

After an eighth horse in two weeks was injured racing on Del Mar’s turf track, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has temporarily closed the track again to make safety modifications, though the club said Friday it is convinced the turf is unrelated to the horse injuries.

The horse was injured Thursday during the seventh race of the day, and has been hospitalized following seven other injuries the first ten days of the racing season at Del Mar. Seven of the eight horses have been euthanized. The spate of injuries has raised concerns about the safety of the track.

“It is unusual, that many deaths in such a short amount of time,” Mike Marten, spokesman for the California Horse Racing Board, said this week. Historically far more injuries occur on dirt than on grass turf, Marten added.

Del Mar said the condition of the track is not to blame for the injuries.

“We continue to believe that we have a good turf course; however, incidents and public perception are a tough thing to fight against,” Mac McBride, the Director of Media for Del Mar, said on Friday. “If you go back and look at this incident Thursday, this poor little filly was put in a race where she absolutely did not belong. She was forced to run very very hard against very superior competition.” 

McBride said in an interview earlier this week that the turf was not in need of adjustments and that jockeys provided positive feedback about the track racing conditions despite the enduring horse injuries, calling it firm and good for the horses to race on. But because of the frequency of the recent horse injuries, Del Mar decided to modify the track, closing it for three days from July 27 to 30th and moving the scheduled turf races to the Polytrack.

During those days, McBride said the turf track underwent three basic adjustments: moving the inner rail, aerating the course, and giving it extra water. Also, the inner rail was moved out to the 18-foot position instead of the planned 12-foot position.

“We decided to err on the side of safety and move it out to the 18-foot marker. This gave us a very fresh, very firm inside rail position,” McBride said.

Additionally, Del Mar aerated the entire course, loosening the turf slightly and making it a little softer, McBride said, adding that they raised their watering level to soften it even further.

Marten explained that the investigators were reviewing the films of the races, interviewing the jockeys, trainers and owners, and reading veterinary reports to determine if there were any pre-existing conditions that contributed to the horses' injuries. This is standard protocol for any race horse death investigation, Marten said.

The CHRB investigated the turf conditions by taking various measurements, such as the degree of compaction and moisture content of the turf, using specialized instruments, and then analyzing and comparing their data. The turf inspection concluded on Tuesday and CHRB deemed the track safe to race on.

On Wednesday, the first day of racing on the modified track, no horses were injured. But the following day during the seventh race, a filly broke down, prompting Del Mar to suspend turf racing for another three to five days in order to aerate and water the track to soften it further.

“We must try to do everything we can to make what we feel is a safe course even safer. We must take a time out here to allow everyone to catch a deep breath to allow people who are agitated by this, understandably so, to take a step back. Its a very upsetting to us,” McBride said.

Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director of the CHRB who advises on all matters relating to equine health and welfare and drug testing in the state, said on Friday that the turf track is likely not the reason for these horse injuries, but it may be a contributing factor.

“It’s seldom one thing,” that causes a racehorse’s injury, Arthur said. “Bottom line is 85 to 90 percent of horses have some pre-existing pathology. And when I say pre-existing pathology, much of that is microscopic and undetectable by current diagnostic procedures in veterinary medicine. That doesn't mean we aren’t trying.” 

Arthur and McBride explained that the horses are subject to thorough and frequent evaluations and observations in the days prior to racing, on racing day, and occasionally after the race to rule out any health concerns.

California state law mandates that all racehorses undergo a necropsy, or horse autopsy, to determine the cause of the horse’s death or injury that required euthanasia. Nine horses have died this season at Del Mar and all are being investigated, but completing the necropsies can take as few as a couple weeks and as long as several months.

“Myself and others have been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to sort out what the issues are and trying to make the track surface as safe as can be and the entire racing experience as safe as can be," Arthur said.

Del Mar hopes to be able to re-open the turf track late next week, McBride said.

An American patient fighting against the deadly Ebola virus arrived in Atlanta from Africa. Dr. Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth, Texas, physician arrived on Saturday. 

John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where Brantly did his residency released a statement Saturday:

Statement from JPS Hospital on return of Dr. Brantly. He did his residency at JPS before going to Liberia. @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/5Uhpj6EIgt

— ScottGordonNBC5 (@ScottGordonNBC5) August 2, 2014

Emory University Hospital confirmed on Friday afternoon it was preparing to receive and treat two patients infected with Ebola in its isolation unit. The second patient is expected to arrive a few days later.

Two Americans involved in the fight against the disease in Liberia, Brantly who works for the evangelical relief organization Samaritan's Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a nurse's assistant with an affiliated group, Serving in Mission, or SIM, have contracted the deadly virus.

"The reason we are bringing these patients back to our facility is because we feel they deserve to have the highest level of care offered for their treatment." said Dr. Bruce S. Ribner, Director of Infectious Diseases at Emory Healthcare."They have gone over on a humanitarian mission. They’ve become infected through medical care and we feel that we have the environment and expertise to safely care for these patients and offer them the maximum opportunity for recovery from these infections."

The evacuation is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Due to privacy concerns, the state department would not confirm if the patients are Brantly and Writebol.

Emory has a specialized isolation unit which was built in collaboration with the CDC to treat patients with certain infectious diseases. It has a unique infrastructure and special equipment to provide a high level of isolation. The entire unit is separate from other patient areas. It has doctors and nurses who are qualified to work in the unit and are trained to deal with highly infectious disease.

"We are one of only four institutions in the United States capable of handling patients of this nature. We have a special containment unit which has been developed with the assistance of the subject experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," said Dr. Ribner.

The State Department said in a news release Friday morning that the evacuations will "will take place over the coming days and that "upon arriving in the United States, the patients will be taken to medical facilities with appropriate isolation and treatment capabilities." 

While the State Department officials aren't confirming who they are evacuating, the humanitarian organizations Brantly and Writebol work for are saying medical evacuation efforts are underway for both people and that they should be completed by early next week.

"We are so heartened that Nancy is in stable condition and that plans are underway to bring her back to the U.S.," said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA. "We are grateful for the help and support of the U.S. State Department in this endeavor. As believers in the power of prayer, we covet the prayers of people around the world, not only for Nancy and Kent, but also for all those fighting this brutal virus."

Samaritan's Purse added Friday that the evacuation of 60 nonessential staff in Liberia has already begun and that they are all healthy and expected to return to the U.S. by the end of the weekend. SIM is also taking steps to return nonessential personnel to the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, said "this outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives, but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries. As I said before, this meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response."

Chan added that the unprecedented outbreak of the most lethal strain of Ebola is the largest ever in the four-decade history of the disease and has, so far, sickened 1,323 and killed 729 in four countries.

Air Ambulance Departs Thursday for Africa.

NBC 5 tracked the departure of an air ambulance taking off from Cartersville, Georgia, not far from the CDC and Emory University Hospital, at about 4 p.m. Thursday.

The air ambulance is owned by a company that works with the CDC. Pictures provided by the CDC show what the medical evacuation aircraft looks like. It contains medical tents that are used to isolate patients from medical staff.

The isolation and security measures are similar to those in place inside the units at Emory University Hospital, according to Dr. Seema Yasmin, medical expert for The Dallas Morning News and a former CDC disease investigator.

"The way that these two patients would be transported on the plane, and any other transport facilities, is done in a way that prevents them from passing the virus to anyone else," said Yasmin.

Emory University Hospital sent to its staff the following memo Thursday:

"We have a highly specialized, isolated unit in the hospital that was set up in collaboration with the CDC to treat patients who are exposed to certain serious infectious diseases. This unit is physically separate from other patient areas and has unique equipment and infrastructure that provide an extraordinarily high level of clinical isolation. In fact, Emory University Hospital is one of just four facilities in the entire country with such a specialized unit."

According to the CDC, the chance of the virus traveling undetected to the United States is extremely low. In the rare instance it did, the CDC said the country is well-equipped to manage and treat it so that there would not be an outbreak.

It's extremely difficult to get the virus, according to doctors. Ebola is not airborne and is instead transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids, such a vomit, feces or blood of infected persons, living or dead.

It is also important to note that a person with Ebola is only contagious when symptoms are present, according to Yasmin.

Fort Worth Church Asks for Prayers for Brantly

At the Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth, they are asking for prayers for Dr. Brantly.

Kent Smith, one of the church elders, said that Brantly has always put others first, so Smith was not surprised to hear that when there was only enough experimental serum for one of the two Americans fighting Ebola, Brantly asked that it was given to Writebol.

"I have had a heavy heart, as I know everyone here at our church and probably all across the world world, just to imagine what he is having to go through. But it's certainly encouraging to think he is going to come back here and have access to care he might not have had in Liberia," Smith said.

NBC 5's Scott Gordon and Julie Fine contributed to this report.

The widow of Eric Garner called on prosecutors to take action Saturday, a day after the city medical examiner ruled the death of her husband a homicide and declared that a police chokehold had killed him.

"I just want them to do the right thing and get me justice for my husband," Esaw Garner said at a Harlem rally. She said she hoped "we can move forward and get this cop done with." 

Shortly after Eric Garner died, one officer was stripped of his gun and badge pending an internal NYPD investigation and another was placed on desk duty. Two paramedics and two EMTs were suspended without pay after allegedly failing to provide CPR in a timely manner.

The medical examiner said compression of the neck and chest, along with Garner's positioning on the ground while being restrained by police during the July 17 stop on Staten Island, caused his death. 

Garner's acute and chronic bronchial asthma, obesity and hypertensive cardiovascular disease were contributing factors, the medical examiner determined.

A spokesman for Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, who's leading the investigation in the case, said Friday that his office had been contacted with the cause and manner of Garner's death but was waiting for the official death certificate and the autopsy report to be issued.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton also said he received the medical examiner's report and that the department will continue to cooperate with district attorney's office. He has previously said he ordered a top-to-bottom redesigning of use-of-force training in the NYPD.  

At the Saturday rally at the headquarters of his National Action Network, the Rev. Al Sharpton pressed for an arrest.

"You can't have the facts and not address the facts," he said. "All we are interested in is justice."

An amateur video taken during Garner's arrest shows a plainclothes police officer placing him in what appears be a chokehold, which is banned under NYPD policy. In the video, Garner can be heard multiple times gasping, "I can't breathe!"

After receiving the medical examiner's findings, Mayor de Blasio released a statement expressing his sympathies to Garner's family and said his administration will continue to work with the Staten Island district attorney and other authorities "to ensure a fair and justified outcome." 

“We all have a responsibility to work together to heal the wounds from decades of mistrust and create a culture where the police department and the communities they protect respect each other -- and that’s a responsibility that Commissioner Bratton and I take very seriously," he said.

De Blasio said he remained "absolutely committed to ensuring that the proper reforms are enacted to ensure that this won’t happen again."

A day before the autopsy results were released, the mayor hosted a reform talk at City Hall in an attempt to ease tensions with communities of color in the wake of Garner's death. The discussion got heated as Sharpton criticized Bratton and told the mayor that his son, Dante de Blasio, who is black, would be "a candidate for a chokehold" if he weren't the mayor's son. 

Garner's family members and Sharpton met with federal prosecutors last month to press for an investigation into his death. Sharpton said police violated Garner's civil rights while arresting him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, and that led to his death. 

The U.S. attorney hasn't commented on the meeting with the Garners. Previously, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is "closely monitoring" the investigation into Garner's death. 

The president of the police officers' union expressed sympathy to Garner's family and friends and said that "police officers don't start their days expecting or wanting something like this to occur in the performance of their duties."

Pat Lynch of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association went on to say, "We believe, however, that if he had not resisted the lawful order of the police officers placing him under arrest, this tragedy would not have occurred."

The case has incited calls for sweeping police department reform. New alleged chokehold videos have emerged in its wake, including one involving an alleged fare beater and another involving a pregnant Brooklyn woman who claims she was put in a chokehold when she questioned officers' requests to move the site of a barbecue.

In addition to running the National Action Network, Al Sharpton is a talk show host on MSNBC, which is owned by WNBC's parent company, NBCUniversal.

A man shot and killed his common law wife in front of seven children and then turned the gun on himself in Panaroma City, Los Angeles, Friday night.

The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. at an apartment on the 8700 block of Tobias Street, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Police said the incident began after the man "had drunk five or more beers" and argued with his wife. The husband then called a friend and told the friend he was going to kill himself. The friend was on the way to apartment when the man texted and said he was going to also kill his wife.

The friend said that upon arrival, he heard yelling inside the apartment and then gun shots.

Police said the man shot the 41-year-old victim at least once and then tried to shoot himself.

"At that point, the (19-year-old) daughter’s boyfriend pushed the gunman out of the apartment," LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said. "The gunman then turned the gun on himself once again, this time killing himself with a shotgun blast to the head."

The victim and the gunman shared only one of the seven children that were present, that being a 10-year-old son. Also in the apartment at the time of the shooting were the victim’s 13 and 16-year-old sons, a pregnant 19-year-old daughter, and the daughter’s 1, 3, and 4-year-old children.

"Tragic as this is, it could have been so much worse," Lt. Vernon said. "It’s lucky no one else was killed or wounded in that crowded apartment, either on purpose or by accident, thanks in part to the boyfriend."

Donations to the family can be made at Good Day Donuts at 8245 Sepulveda Blvd.

The victim was the manager of the apartment complex.

There's a point while watching the video of Ethan Swanson's unbelievable rooftop leap when the camera pans down to the ground and two words suddenly come to mind: "Don't jump!" 

But jump he did -- without a parachute and little protection -- from the roof of a Chicago apartment building onto the peak roof of a vacant building far below. The 24-year-old slides down the shingles of the neighboring roof, partially lands on an outdoor spiral staircase and keeps sliding until he lands, slightly less than unscathed, onto a sidewalk.

It's all captured using a couple of GoPro cameras, and in the two days since being posted to YouTube, the James Bond-esque jump has gone viral, garnering more than 1.7 million views.

"I got banged up," admits Swanson, a native of Chicago's suburbs. "No broken bones, nothing serious."

The roof's shingles did tear through the areas between the four shin guards he taped to himself before the jump and pulled away some skin. Oh, and he bruised his right heel a little, but it goes with the territory for Swanson.

"I've been doing this my whole life, since even before I can remember," he said. "My mom says I was climbing before I could walk."

Swanson is a part-time professional stuntman and former gymnast who feels most comfortable being up high and spends his free time cliff diving, rock climbing and scouting out his next urban stunt. By day he works for an investment company as an actuary, which comes in handy for Swanson's hobby.

He never goes into a jump blindly and takes weeks, even months to prepare for a leap before he completes it.

For the rooftop jump, Swanson took measurements of everything at the site and practiced for a month to get it all perfect, from the timing and speed of his run to the jump and landing. He even postponed the jump once because of rain.

"That's one thing I wish I could tell people more about because I don't want someone to see [the video] and go out and do it and not prepare," he said, noting, "I've dedicated a lot of my time to have the training and the skills to do these things."

Swanson was contacted by GoPro in the spring about partnering with the company for the jump. He already had this one planned, so he went for it. The jump is all his, the video editing is all GoPro, he says.

He never expected it to go viral, but this surely isn't the last you've heard of him.

"Whenever I'm out or walking around," he said, "I'm always looking up."

Check out Ethan's other YouTube videos here.

A rare whale fossil is getting a new home an estimated 16 to 17 million years since it landed in what would become a Rancho Palos Verdes, Southern California, backyard.

There are just 20 or so baleen whale fossils in the world, said paleontologist Howell Thomas of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles said Friday as crews worked to excavate the fossil, which was lodged in a 1,000-pound rock.

“This is a really important fossil,” Thomas said.

Baleen whales are characterized by their baleen, a system of plates used to strain their food through water instead of teeth.

The fossil was discovered in the summer of 1978 by a teenage Gary Johnson, when he was exploring the backyard of his family’s house.

Johnson, now 53, said he reached out to another local museum at the time, but they could not figure out how to move the massive fossil. When another whale fossil was discovered on the property of a nearby school and excavated by the Natural History Museum, he reached out to the organization to see if they might be interested in his fossil.

Thomas told him they were interested.

More than three decades after its initial discovery, the fossil was hoisted from the backyard ravine by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department search-and-rescue volunteers, who were using the excavation as a training exercise.

The volunteers were able to remove the fossil and it’s now headed to the museum, where it’s bound for a research collection. There are no plans to display the find.

For Johnson, the excavation is something of a relief.

“It’s kind of my baby,” he said. “And now it’s going to a good home.”

 Seven race-related horse fatalities and one serious injury are leading to major changes at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, with the track's chief operating officer addressing concerns.

Late Friday afternoon, track administrators announced maintenance schedules that will reduce turf track races by one-third, allowing for additional, aggressive up-keep.

Track racing is suspended through next Friday, not just this weekend.

Plus, Del Mar officials plan to hire a track consultant.

For the first time since this rash of injuries – five on the turf and three on the main track – Chief Operating Officer Josh Rubenstein is speaking out about this year's season.

Rubenstein said because the turf track is new, the surface is harder, but that could not be the only reason for so many injuries.

The COO said overall, jockeys and trainers like the course.

“The feedback we're getting from the jockeys about this course is that it is very safe. It is a little on the firm side but it is a safe turf course. Horses are getting over it in a good way,” Rubenstein said.

Former racehorse owner Bert Ellis gave NBC 7 a glimpse into ownership.

He said losing a horse is a lot like losing a child.

“Now the thrill is coming that he is in a race and he might go and win. That's a big thrill. If a horse goes down like that, you're really worried. It’s like your kid got hurt. That's the way I look at it,” Ellis said.

Rubenstein said the new turf has shallow ruts. He hopes aerating, regular watering and limited use will help the surface develop faster.

 A San Diego realtor admitted to paying for sex with a 13-year-old girl, using “bookstore” and “library” as code words to arrange meet-ups, according to his plea agreement released Thursday.

Michael Lustig, 70, pleaded guilty to three counts of interstate travel aid of racketeering enterprises, which are prostitution-related charges.

According to U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy, interviews with two minors revealed Lustig had hired an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl separately for commercial sex.

Surveillance video from an El Cajon motel caught Lustig entering a room with one of the girls and emerging about 43 minutes later, court documents show.

The girls told officials they knew the suspect as “George” and had been paid by him for sexual activity, even after at least one of the girls told him she was a minor.

San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies first contacted Lustig in June 2012 as they were targeting prostitution customers in the Encinitas area.

When he was arrested, deputies seized two cell phones from him, which confirmed he had been in contact with the two minors, Duffy says.

However, Lustig’s plea agreement just details his interactions with the 13-year-old girl between Oct. 2011 and June 2012.

For example, on Oct. 15, 2011, he texted the girl, “Hey, is the bookstore open? I’m in desperate need of books rite now,” according to his plea. Lustig admitted the words like “bookstore” and “library” were codes for commercial sex.

A federal grand jury initially charged Lustig with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor and criminal forfeiture in Oct. 2013, but the charges were revised in his plea agreement.

Lustig now faces a total of 15 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release at his sentencing, set for Nov. 3, 2014.

A $10 million civil lawsuit claiming Rebecca Zahau’s death was a murder, not a suicide, has been amended to allege new details of how three people conspired to kill her, beating, gagging and strangling Zahau before pushing her off a balcony.

The wrongful death lawsuit, originally filed in July 2013 by Zahau’s family, was amended last month by attorney Keith Greer. On Friday, all attorneys involved in the case met to discuss details and future court dates.

On July 13, 2011, the nude body of Zahau, 32, was found bound and hanging from a balcony at the famous Spreckels Mansion in Coronado. A cryptic message written in black paint was found just outside the second-story room in the house, which read: “She saved him. Can you save her.”

Her death came two days after her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai’s 6-year-old son, Max Shacknai, fatally fell at the home while under Zahau’s watch.

Though the circumstances of Zahau’s death were deemed suspicious at first, homicide investigators with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department ultimately concluded that Zahau had committed suicide by hanging.



When Sheriff Bill Gore and his detectives revealed the results of their investigation in September 2011, sources told NBC 7 that investigators believed Zahau felt tremendous guilt over Max’s death, leading to her suicide.

Over the past three years, Zahau’s family has been very vocal about the case, refusing to accept the suicide ruling.

In May 2013, the Zahau family and their attorneys filed a lawsuit demanding the case be reopened. While the family didn’t identify potential suspects, they claimed all evidence in the case points to homicide. The family maintained that Zahau did not blame herself for Max’s death and was not suicidal.

The family’s amended civil lawsuit blames three people in connection with the murder of Zahau. This includes her boyfriend’s brother, Adam Shacknai, the last person to see Zahau alive who also found her hanging body and called officials. It also names her boyfriend’s ex, Dina Shacknai, and Dina’s sister, Nina Romano. The lawsuit details how they allegedly killed Zahau.

“On or around the morning of July 13, 2011, defendants Adam, Dina and Nina, and each of them, conspired to plan, and did in fact, enter into a common scheme of conduct with the intent to murder Rebecca in Coronado, California,” the lawsuit states.

The document goes on to claim that the trio struck Zahau “on the head multiple times with a blunt instrument,” physically restrained her, gagged her, bound her and strangled her “to the point of unconsciousness or death.”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants then placed a rope noose around Zahau’s neck, tied the other end of the rope to a bed, carried Zahau to the balcony of the bedroom and pushed her over the railing.



“During the course of the conspiracy to murder Rebecca, each of the defendants also kept watch to avoid detection and removed evidence of the acts which they committed, including wiping down objects they had touched in order to remove DNA and fingerprints,” the document states.

It continues: “As a further ploy to cover up their wrongdoing, and in furtherance of their common scheme, defendants painted the following words on the inside of the door near the balcony where she was left hanging: She saved him. Can you save her.”

The amended lawsuit claims Dina and Nina “aggressively confronted” Zahau on July 12, 2011, at the Coronado mansion about Max’s deadly fall.

Zahau tried to run away, the document claims, but before she could run Dina and Nina allegedly struck her four times on the back of the head with a blunt object, rendering her unconscious.

The Zahau family believes that at this time, Adam – who was sleeping in the guest house at the mansion – woke up and walked in on the scene. The trio then allegedly conspired to kill Zahau and cover it up. The lawsuit claims the women killed Zahau and ordered Adam to write the cryptic message on the door.

The document mentions Max’s death as a possible motive for the murder, as well Dina’s alleged jealously of Zahau’s relationship with Jonah Shacknai. It also claims the defendants were motivated to kill Zahau “in order to keep her from disclosing matters that could prove extremely embarrassing to the
defendants and their families.”

In a document filed by Dina’s attorneys, she dismisses the amended complaint, saying she cannot be held liable for Zahau’s death.

The document from Dina’s camp calls the Zahau family’s allegations “salacious,” as well as ambiguous and confusing.

“The fictional new story alleged an implausible time line relative to the alleged conspiracy,” the document states. “It nowhere describes how the alleged conspiracy was formed, when it was formed, how the alleged co-conspirators communicated their consent to the purported agreement, or any meeting of the minds of the alleged co-conspirators essential to a civil conspiracy.”

The document goes on to call the plaintiff’s allegations “meaningless to a properly alleged conspiracy claim” and adds that the new claims “directly contradict the Coroner and is not plausible when applying common sense and context of this being the plaintiff’s fifth attempt to prepare an adequate complaint.”

 The Escondido man suspected of using a police officer’s death to create a bogus fundraising website has pleaded not guilty to charges against him.

Sami Ahmed Saeed, 25, was charged with nine felonies Friday after prosecutors say he set up a phony GoFundMe.com site in the name of Officer Laura Perez, whose body was found in a Morena Valley storage unit last week.

Police say Perez was shot by her husband, Freddy Perez-Rodas, who tried to hide her body and burn down their house to cover the crime.

Prosecutors say the day after detectives found Perez’s body, Saeed set up a fake website that lists Perez’s daughter and family as the fundraiser’s recipients.

No one had donated to the account before Saeed was arrested and the GoFundMe website was removed.

“The administrators at GoFundMe.com indicated that there were other web pages set up by using the same identifiers from Mr. Saeed to illicit donations for a little girl who has cancer, and that little girl is unnamed and that web page has also been taken down,” said Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn.

A search of Saeed’s apartment turned up stolen credit cards and machine used to make phony ID cards and credit cards, according to police.

Saeed had denied the allegations against him.

Escondido Police say the suspect apparently worked for the U.S. military, and his friend from Ohio confirmed that Saeed was an Arabic translator for U.S. troops during the Iraq War.

After his arraignment Friday, he now faces four counts of identity theft, three counts of passing a fraudulent check, one count of possession of a forged identity and one count of receiving stolen property.

Saeed is being held in jail on a $250,000 bond.

A 16-year-old boy was killed in Chicago in a shooting that wounded two other teens on the Southwest Side late Friday night.

The three were among 18 people shot across the city overnight.

Police responded to a call of a person shot in the 2700 block of West 24th Street around 11:30 p.m. Friday, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada.

A 16-year-old boy was found with a gunshot wound to the chest and was transported to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Two others teens also suffered wounds in the shooting. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks and an 18-year-old man was shot in the arm. Both were taken in stable condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

The three teens were walking on the block when two offenders walked up and fired shots, according to authorities. Police said the shooting is being investigated as gang-related.

The first weekend shooting took place just after 6 p.m. Friday when a 16-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet after a gunman opened fire into a group of people walking in the 600 block of East 37th Place.

Police said the shooting may have been a drive-by and after witnesses reported a light-colored vehicle drove past the group and someone inside the vehicle opened fire. The teen was taken to Stroger Hospital with a graze wound to the abdomen. She was listed in good condition.

At least 13 others were shot overnight in the city.

• A 20-year-old man was shot in the right leg in the 11400 block of South Yale just after 7 a.m. Saturday, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition.
• Three people were shot inside a lounge on Chicago’s South Side just before 2 a.m. Saturday in the 700 block of East 83rd Street. The group was inside the lounge when they heard an argument and gunfire and realized they had been shot. A 39-year-old man and a 32-year-old man were both shot in the back and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition. A 61-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and listed in stable condition at Stroger Hospital, police said. It was not clear if the three were the intended targets, Estrada said.
• Around the same time, a 19-year-old man was shot in the 7900 block of South Merrill Avenue. The teen was standing outside with friends when he heard several shots and felt pain, police said. He suffered wounds to the left thigh and was taken in critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
• Around 12:15 a.m., a 33-year-old man was shot in the 8500 block of South Exchange Avenue. The man was standing with a group when a white vehicle pulled up and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire. A 33-year-old man was shot in the right leg and taken in stable condition to Trinity Hospital.
• Two people were shot just before midnight in the 5500 block of South Seeley Avenue. Two 28-year-old men were shot when a car drove by them and someone inside the vehicle fired shots, police said. One man was shot in the forearm, abdomen and right thigh and was taken in stable condition to Stroger Hospital. The other man was shot in the heel and drove himself to South Shore Hospital where he was listed in stable condition, police said.
• Around 11:30 p.m., a 29-year-old man was shot by a bicyclist in the 5800 block of West Erie. Police said the man was standing on the sidewalk when an armed offender on a bicycle rode by and fired shots. The victim walked into West Suburban Medical Center with a wound to the right thigh and was listed in stable condition.
• Just after 11 p.m., a 26-year-old man was shot multiple times in the 3000 block of West Flournoy Street. The man was standing with a group of people when he “heard shots and felt pain,” police said. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the leg and was listed in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.
• Around 10:30 p.m., a 19-year-old man was shot when a gunman opened fire from a passing light-colored vehicle in the 1400 block of West Elmdale Avenue. The teen was shot in the back but fled the scene and notified police. He was taken in critical condition to Saint Francis Hospital.
• Two people were shot around 8:40 p.m. in the 13200 block of South Riverdale Avenue. A 29-year-old man was shot in the lower left arm and right bicep and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition. A 26-year-old man was shot in the right leg and taken to Roseland Community Hospital in good condition. The two told police they were standing outside when they “heard shots and felt pain.”
• Around 8:11 p.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the 13000 block of South Champlain Avenue. The man suffered wounds to the left buttocks and left knee and a graze wound to the right forearm. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition.

Two victims were stabbed in San Diego's North Park neighborhood early Saturday morning after lending a cell phone to a stranger on the street, authorities confirmed.

The San Diego Police Department said things turned violent in the 3900 block of Ohio Street at around 2:10 a.m. after a 32-year-old man loaned his phone to an unknown man who then refused to give it back.

The pair began fighting and police said the suspect stabbed the victim in the arm.

A second victim – a 30-year-old man – tried to intervene and was also stabbed in the back by the suspect.

The suspect then fled the scene.

Police said both victims sustained non-life threatening injuries. They were able to get back the cell phone.

The suspect is described by police as an African-American man dressed in a blue suit and tie. He was clean-shaven, approximately 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. Anyone with information on this case should contact the SDPD.
 

A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the death of a 3-year-old girl who was shot after a man opened fire along a Philadelphia street following an argument. Three others were also hit by gunfire.

Gunshots rang out around 9:40 p.m. on Friday along the 1500 block of S. Etting Street near 27th Street in the Grays Ferry section of the city, police said.

Philadelphia Police Capt. Michael Gormley said two men began arguing along the block when one pulled out a gun and started firing.

A stray bullet hit 3-year-old Tynirah Borum in the left side of her chest, Gormley said. Witnesses tell NBC10.com that Borum was getting her hair done when she was struck. Family and friends say the girl did not live at the home and that her mother was around the corner at the time of the shooting. 

Officers arriving on the scene put her in a patrol car and rushed her to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, officials said. But despite trauma doctor's efforts, she was pronounced dead at 10:21 p.m.

"There's nothing much you can say about this tragedy," said Mike Collins, Tynirah's cousin. "That was my little cousin. It hurts.

Three other people were also hit by the gunfire, police said. The other man involved in the argument was shot in the head. He was rushed by officers to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, police said. He remains there in critical condition.

A 21-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman who police say were bystanders, were also struck. The man was struck in the leg. He was taken to HUP where he is currently in stable condition. The woman was struck in the arm. She was also taken to HUP where she was treated and released.

Witnesses say the shooter fled the scene on his bicycle. Police have a person of interest in custody however no charges have been filed at this time. They are currently searching for others who may have been involved. 

Police are also offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

As police continue to investigate, a memorial for the young girl continues to grow.

"That was my best friend's daughter," said Renee Bradford, a friend of Tynirah's mother. "She was everything to us. She ran around like a normal three-year-old girl. She didn't deserve this. She was simply trying to get her hair done. For her to get shot in the chest? She's a baby. No baby deserves to die like that."

When 8-year-old Noah Aldrich decided he wanted to compete in a kids triathlon he instantly asked if he could do it with his 6-year-old brother.

There was only problem—6-year-old Lucas Aldrich was born with a rare brain condition that has left him unable to walk.

That didn’t stop Noah from bringing his brother, and best friend, along on the journey.

“He said ‘Mom, I want to do this with my brother,’” Noah’s mother Alissa Aldrich told NBC's KTVB in Boise, Idaho. “That’s where the idea was born and I think the next day we started training.”

Noah’s parents said the two brothers from Boise, Idaho have shared a special bond since the day Lucas was born.

“They definitely have a special bond, the two of them,” said Alissa Aldrich. “You see Lucas light up so much when Noah enters the room.”

Lucas was born with a rare condition called Lissencephaly. Family members were told he’d be non-verbal, wheelchair bound, unable to eat and that he would have a shortened lifespan.

The family says Lucas is doing better than they ever expected and Noah can’t say enough about his love for his younger brother.

“I like everything about him,” he said. “He’s perfect.”

When the Aldrich family heard about the YMCA Kids Club program, and a kids triathlon, the family quickly became involved, supporting Noah and his brotherly love.

Running, biking and swimming together, the two young brothers prepared for their impressive feat.

“He’s just going to be happy that he did the race,” Noah said.

When the big day came, Team Lucas House was ready to roll.

“They will start with a 200-meter swim,” said Alissa Aldrich.

And swim Noah did, as hard as he could, with his brother in tow in a raft behind him.

Noah then biked with his brother for three miles and ran for another mile pushing Lucas in front of him.

“We’re very proud,” said Alissa Aldrich at the finish line. “It was really exciting to watch them and a little nerve-wrecking as parents, but they did so good and we’re proud of them.”

The family hopes to continue to create a legacy for Lucas, starting with a non-profit they developed called Lucas House.