A raging fire at a San Marcos trash and recycling facility prompted a major fire department response to stop its spread Friday evening.

A trash pile caught fire just after 5 p.m. outside the EDCO Waste and Recycling Services building at 168 S. Las Posas Road.

Multiple fire engines from the San Marcos Fire Department were called out to help.

Firefighters grabbed a hose and climbed up a ladder to extinguish the fire from a higher angle.

No injuries were reported, and there is no word on the cause.

Smoke could be seen off State Route 78.

Friends of the man accused of bludgeoning a young Southern California family to death are having a hard time believing man they know could commit such a brutal crime.

Despite his arrest Friday morning, friends and family of Charles Chase Merritt, 56, of Apple Valley say there's no way he could have murdered anyone.

Merritt appeared in court Friday afternoon, charged with killing his former business partner, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer McStay and their two young children. The family went missing in 2010 and their remains were discovered in a shallow desert grave north of Victorville last year.

Outside the courthouse, the suspect’s brother, Bennett Merritt didn’t want to talk about Charles Chase Merritt.

But another family member, who did not want to be identified, said investigators have arrested the wrong man. She said he would never hurt anyone.

"They're trying to hang Charles,” she said. "He's a good guy he'd never do this."

Allison Moye, an Apple Valley resident, said she’s known Merritt for years and that he never once mentioned anything about the McStays.

"Chase was actually a real pleasant cowboy type,” she said. “He used to love to dance so I'd see him at all the country bars all the girls wanted to dance with him."

Moye played on a billiards team with Merritt in the high desert, just miles from the McStays burial site. She said she never thought he could be capable of killing anyone.

"He was never violent. He never started a fight or anything, ever. Just nice quiet Chase, that's it," she said.

In an interview last year with MailOnline.com, Merritt allegedly said he was previously considered a suspect because he was the last person to see Joseph McStay alive, and the last person Joseph called before the family disappeared.

Merritt also claimed investigators gave him a lie detector test and he passed.

Joseph McStay’s mother Susan Blake was in court, along with other family members including Joseph’s brother Mike, who spent years tirelessly looking for his brother’s family.

Blake says the arrest is a relief, but it’ll never bring back their loved ones.

"I wanted him to see my face,” she said of Merritt. “Just know what the pain he's put us through. I wanted him to look in my eyes.”

The woman accused of stealing a California Highway Patrol vehicle and leading officers on a wild chase, ending in a gunbattle, has a criminal history that “just escalated” from partying to drug use and DUI, her estranged husband told NBC 7.

Casaundra Lane, 27, appeared in El Cajon Superior Court Friday, but not for the crimes she is suspected of committing on Thursday. Instead, she was arraigned on shoplifting and failure to appear charges, stemming from an incident in July.

Since March 2008, Lane has had at least six cases filed against her, according to the El Cajon Superior Court clerk’s office.

“I didn’t think it would go this far, but she’s been getting into trouble a lot for a while now. It just escalated,” said Travis Harvey, Lane’s estranged husband.

He met Lane nine years ago at Santana High School, where Harvey says they started going down the wrong path together.

“Started just partying, went a little too heavy,” he said. “Get out of high school, just never stopped, things escalate, drug addiction and what not.”

On March 23, 2008, Lane was charged with of five misdemeanors, including DUI, fighting in public and failure to appear. She agreed to a plea bargain in the case and was sentenced to three years of probation, court documents show.

One week after those charges were brought against her, she was arrested on March 31 in a felony drug case for possession of a controlled substance. That charge was dismissed the next year when she completed a drug diversion program.

But before she entered that program, Lane again was arrested on two drug charges — possession of controlled substance and possession of illegal drug paraphernalia. Both of those charges were dismissed the next day; she was not convicted of those crimes.

Another arrest came on Sept. 8, 2009, and the court says Lane was later charged with DUI.

Multiple offenses, including false impersonation and petty theft, put her in police custody on March 7, 2010. Again, Lane was sentenced to three years of probation after accepting a plea deal.

Her next charge did not come until over two years later, when she was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance. In January 2013, she entered another drug treatment program, but she did not complete it.

She instead pleaded guilty to the felony drug count and was sentenced to 16 months in county jail with credit for 306 days served.

As Lane’s rap sheet continued to grow, Harvey says he urged his ex-wife to clean up her act last year.

“When I made the decision, I told her I’m going to do this with or without you, and I hope you’re with me,” he told NBC 7. “When I found she was up to no good — which I found out because she was arrested again — that’s when I cut the cord, so to speak.”

He admitted his drug use resulted in Lane filing a domestic violence charge against him.

Lane’s other family members started keeping their distance.

Her aunt told NBC 7 after stealing from them, Lane was banned from her father’s home. Her father was too emotional to comment on his daughter’s latest alleged ordeal.

Police say on Thursday, Lane was in the back of a CHP SUV in connection with a hit-and-run investigation when she maneuvered her handcuffs, climbed over the seat and took off in the vehicle.

After shots were fired at her, she led law enforcement on a pursuit that ended in Mission Valley with a gunbattle, but no injuries, according to investigators.

Lane, who is being held on a $505,000 bail, will be back in court Monday for an arraignment on charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, vehicle theft, taking a law enforcement vehicle, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

A 67-year-old man, whom prosecutors described as a “big-time cigarette smuggler,” was arrested while attempting to bring more than a half-million untaxed smokes into the state, authorities said Friday.

Michael Zekry, of Staten Island, was stopped by police just after midnight on Nov. 5 in New Springville after a seven-month investigation, Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan Jr. said in announcing the arrest. Investigators found 2,035 cartons of Virginia-stamped cigarettes in his van, he said.

Investigators said they found another 551 cartons in Zekry’s apartment, as well as $40,000 and an electronic cash-counting machine.

“Michael Zekry was a big-time cigarette smuggler who sold his contraband to clients across Staten Island,” Donovan said. “He would do residential drop-offs, as well as deliver to grocery stores and nail salons.”

Zekry said he smuggled cigarettes out of Virginia every 10 weeks and earned as much as $7,000 a load, according to Donovan.

“You’ve got a good one! I’m out of business now,” Zekry told investigators, according to Donovan.

The total haul seized from Zekry came to 517,200 cigarettes. Had he sold the entire stash, he would have cheated the state and New York City out of more than $150,000 in tax revenue.

Any vendor selling cigarettes in the state must be licensed to do so and may only sell packs bearing city/state tax stamps.

Zekry was indicted on felony counts of evading cigarette/tobacco products tax and a tax-fraud charge. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Zekry's Legal Aid attorney could not be reached for comment. 
 

A 13- and 14-year-old from New Haven are facing charges after violently robbing and beating three adults in Hamden along with a group of peers, according to police.

Police are calling it a crime spree and said there might be other victims.

According to police, about half a dozen teens tried to break into a home on Goodrich Street around 1 a.m. Friday. The group then targeted middle-aged adults walking in the area.

"It appears to be a group of very young actors engaged in very violent behavior," explained Hamden police chief Thomas Wydra. "It didn't matter who was going to be the victim. They were going up and down the street, looking for whoever to accost."

A 54-year-old Hamden resident told police he was walking on Newhall Street when an “angry group” of teens demanded his money and personal belongings. The teens attacked the man and pistol whipped him, then ran off, according to police.

While investigators were talking interviewing the first victim, a 59-year-old man came forward and told them he, too, had been assaulted.

The second victim said he was also walking on Newhall Street when about eight people started chasing him. He ran to a nearby home for help when one member of the group pointed a gun at him, then pistol whipped him. The teens then started beating him with shovels, sticks and other yard tools, police said.

A third victim, age 43, was found “stumbling down Dixwell Avenue near Hamden Street” and taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment. The man told police five people attacked him while he was walking westbound on Goodrich Street. He was pistol whipped, knocked to the ground, then punched and kicked repeatedly, according to police.

Police said the group stole $7 and cigarettes from the third victim.

Community members are alarmed and are calling for action.

"My concern is that we need to find a way to rally the community and find a way to have more policing on the street at one in the morning," said Deacon Clinton Robinson, of New Haven. "We have to find out how we can convey to the parents that kids need to be at home at one in the morning, not running the streets."

Two teens have been charged with second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree assault. Police are still looking for the other suspects.

Anyone with information is urged to call Hamden police at 203-230-4000.

Former President George W. Bush dropped by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Friday to recognize the end of Dallas’ Ebola outbreak.

Bush visited with health care workers, including Amber Vinson, one of the nurses who became infected while caring for the nation’s first patient diagnosed with Ebola.

CLICK HERE to read more on this story from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.

The man who accused Carl DeMaio of sexual harassment is the same person who provided confidential campaign documents to DeMaio’s opponent Scott Peters, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The newly unsealed search warrant affidavits, obtained by NBC 7 Investigates, show the Peters campaign held on to the controversial documents for four days before alerting the authorities.

Those campaign documents are described as “DeMaio’s media plan” in 211-pages of eight search warrant affidavits issued between the dates of June 13 through August 14.

DeMaio and Peters have been battling it out to serve California’s 52nd Congressional district. As of Friday night, Congressman Peters was leading Republican challenger DeMaio by 4,491 votes.

According to the court documents, Todd Bosnich gave Peters’ campaign manager, MaryAnne Pintar, printed proofs of the mailers from Carl DeMaio’s campaign and a CD containing a recording of his June interview with KFMB’s Mike Slater.

Pintar told a detective that former Demaio campaign staffer -- Bosnich – gave her the DeMaio campaign documents and a CD, on June 5, according to the search warrants.

Pintar told police she took the documents home and copied them.

She gave the originals to her boss, Congressman Peters, the next day. Peters then gave those materials to his wife, Lynn Gorguze, according to the search warrants.

The Peters’ campaign kept the documents and the CD for “three more days," according to the search warrant affidavits.

It wasn’t until June 9 that the Peters’ campaign told police they had DeMaio’s campaign strategy documents. The search warrants detail a phone conversation between Pintar and a detective, where Pintar provides a play-by-play of how she obtained the documents from Bosnich.

The DeMaio campaign headquarters was broken into and vandalized May 28. Cords and cables were cut, water was poured over laptops and printers, computer screens were smashed in and one important item was taken: DeMaio’s campaign playbook.

On an October 17 episode of “Politically Speaking,” DeMaio confronted Peters about the book.

“And Mr. Peters, I just want to ask a very simple question. Did your campaign come into possession of our strategy book, all of our direct mail pieces in the last five months?” asked DeMaio.

Peters responded with: “In early June, information was forwarded to our campaign which we immediately turned over to the police.”

DeMaio pressed the issue, asking Peters why he did not let his opponent’s campaign know that he had seen DeMaio’s playbook all along. (The Peters campaign disputes the information provided by Bosnich should be considered a "playbook.")

“I’ve obviously never seen it,” said Peters. “We turned it directly over to the police within 24 hours of getting it because what was contained in it was potentially part of a criminal investigation.”

A Superior Court judge unsealed the more than 200 pages of documents Friday. The documents were part of a police investigation into the DeMaio campaign office break-in and Bosnich’s claims of sexual harassment.

The District Attorney and San Diego Police investigated the sexual harassment claims and the break-in but no charges were filed.

NBC 7 Investigates reached Pintar, who said she was confused about the dates because she was on vacation. She later said that when Peters said the information was turned over in 24-hours, he was referring to emails Pintar received that she immediately forwarded to the police.

Throughout the campaign, both candidates and Bosnich have made a variety of claims against  each other. The interviews referred to in these search warrant affidavits do show that Bosnich and DeMaio have been consistent in their explanation of what happened. They did not change their stories, either to police or to reporters, in the final, especially bitter days, of this Congressional campaign.

Bosnich said everything that he gave to Pintar were items that he had been working on and had access to without breaking-in to DeMaio’s offices.

“If I had given Pintar information that only Carl had access to in this so-called “bible” or “playbook,” I’d be in jail right now,” Bosnich said, adding that he had worked on many of the mailers he provided to Pintar. “And that’s exactly why they didn’t prosecute me.”

In an official statement, Pintar said:

“Rep. Peters and I contacted the police chief within 24 hours of receiving initial information from Bosnich on May 29. I didn't meet with Bosnich until June 5 and that is when he gave me the documents. Peters and I both left town shortly after that on planned travel and the first time I spoke with the detective, I told him about what was given to me and we made it available for pick-up.”

Ed. Note: Pintar called NBC 7 after this initial story was published and asked that we change her statement. It originally said: “Rep. Peters and I contact the police chief within 24 hours to report the meeting with Bosnich. He and I both left town shortly after that on planned travel and the first time I spoke with the detective, I told him about what was given to me and we made it available for pick-up.”

A motorcyclist has died after a crash in the Mt. Hope area Friday evening.

The 25-year-old man was riding his blue Yamaha motorcycle in the 3800 block of Market Street at about 5:22 p.m.

An SUV, driving from the Mount Hope Cemetery, pulled out in front of the motorcyclist. Unable to avoid a crash, the motorcyclist slammed into the side of the SUV.

He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

It's unclear if the 35-year-old SUV driver was injured.

Search warrant affidavits unsealed Friday show San Diego Police investigated several anonymous, harassing emails sent to former Carl DeMaio campaign staffer Todd Bosnich, who later accused the candidate of sexual harassment.

One of the eight affidavits, obtained by NBC 7 Investigates through a San Diego Superior Court judge, states: “Bosnich provided Sergeant Holden a printed email sent to him on June 2, 2014 from an email account (redacted). The sender wrote ‘Todd, your attempt to lie will quickly be rebuffed by facts. And in your own words no less.’

Forwarded with that email was a message sent to Victoria Znorski, Bosnich’s mother, by Bosnich on May 23.

In that correspondence, Znorksi asked Bosnich if he was still getting paid. Bosnich responded and asked his mother to leave him alone because he was responsible for a “huge f--k up” and had to be fired as the campaign’s policy director.

Znorksi later met with police and told them she doesn’t remember receiving the email from Bosnich and doesn’t think she ever sent him an email asking Bosnich if he was still getting paid by the DeMaio campaign.

NBC 7 Investigates had previously asked Bosnich and his attorney about that email when it was provided to us by someone close to the DeMaio campaign.

Bosnich’s attorney Bibi Fell said Bosnich didn’t send this email either. It “was sent after Todd was fired and his access to his carldemaio.com email address had been cut off,” said Fell.

The anonymous emails sent to Bosnich were the subject of FBI interviews with potential witnesses in late October, sources confirmed.

In a CNN interview that aired Oct. 10, Bosnich accused DeMaio of unwelcome touching and repeated sexual harassment.

DeMaio called the allegations “outrageous lies” and in turn accused Bosnich of a May campaign headquarters break-in during which campaign information was stolen.

The San Diego District Attorney and the SDPD both said there was not enough evidence in either the harassment case or the break-in case to file charges.

But the search warrants also reveal that Bosnich was the one who gave confidential DeMaio campaign information to his opponent in the race for the 52nd Congressional District, Scott Peters. Read more about that revelation by clicking here.

A kayaker came across a body off Mission Beach on Friday afternoon.

Just before 2:30 p.m., the kayaker alerted lifeguards upon finding the body just past the surf line adjacent to the 3100 block of Ocean Front Walk.

Lifeguards said the body appears to have been in the water for several days.

No word yet on a cause of death or whether foul play is suspected.
 

A Del Mar man convicted of raping two women he met on the online dating sites ChristianMingle.com and Match.com was sentenced Friday to 37 years to life in prison.

In his final statement before he was punished, Navy Lieutenant Sean Banks quoted what he said was his favorite Bible verse.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good," Banks said, noting he would drop his appeal if one of the victims passed a polygraph test.

Banks' words apparently didn't put him in good graces with the judge, who gave him the high end of the sentencing range and denied him probation. A restraining order also will bar Banks from the two victims for 10 years.

In handing down his sentence, Judge Daniel Goldstein expressed dismay that Banks continues to portray an innocent facade and has shown no remorse for his actions. The judge also said he believed the two women gave truthful accounts of the rapes -- which Banks had argued were untruthful.

"He has so much hatred toward women," the judge said, referring to Banks' interview with investigators, where he laid blame on the victims.

Banks was found guilty in June by a San Diego County jury of rape, rape of an intoxicated woman, two counts of forcible digital penetration and residential burglary with intent to commit rape.

During the more than week-long trial in El Cajon, two women – known only as K.K. and R.O. – told the jury Banks had raped them.

K.K. said she met Banks through ChristianMingle.com and invited him to come to her La Mesa apartment for their first meeting on Nov. 21, 2012.

She then detailed how Banks overpowered and sexually assaulted her. The deputy district attorney told NBC 7 the burglary charge stems from Banks dragging K.K. from her living room to her bedroom and raping her.

The second victim, R.O., said Banks raped her in 2009 after they met on Match.com.

Banks’ attorney had argued it was a “he-said-she said” case, but prosecutors at trial had painted Banks as a “very dangerous internet predator.”

K.K. spoke Friday, imploring the judge to give Banks the maximum sentence.

She said she is still healing from the rape, which caused her to spiral into a deep depression.

"Crime became a reality for me that night," she said. "I learned surviving rape can make you feel dead inside."

While she initially told a probation officer she didn't want to send Banks to prison for life, K.K. said Friday she now felt differently.

"I don't want Sean to ever have the opportunity to physically, sexually or emotionally hurt another female," she said.

A young woman arrested in violent crime spree across San Diego County that left two men seriously injured and ended in a gun battle with police was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

Cindy Garcia, 20, was sentenced under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. She initially faced 16 felony counts in a series of crimes that included the shooting of a young man who was left for dead in the street, the shooting of an off-duty officer at an ATM, a carjacking and arsons of vehicles.

In emotional testimony, the defendant's mother told the judge Friday that her daughter was once an ordinary child who dreamt of Barbie dolls and a father living at home before she was abducted and trafficked to Mexico.

Garcia was accused of committing the acts alongside 40-year-old former Riverside County firefighter Philip Hernandez, a man she described as her husband.

Under a plea deal, Garcia admitted to two of the counts - carjacking a man at gunpoint at the College Grove Mall and firing a semi-automatic firearm on police officers in a shootout that brought the crime spree to an end on Halloween night 2012. 

Hernandez died in the gun battle with police on Harbor Drive in Barrio Logan.  Garcia, who was 18 at the time, was taken into custody.

Two nights earlier, Will Barton was shot in the head while walking in North Park after finishing up the late shift at a nearby restaurant. His mother, Marie Lonsdale, attended Friday’s sentencing. She feels for all the families involved, including Garcia’s.

“The ripples that Cindy Garcia and Phillip Hernandez created they will last forever not only with our family but with the community and all the victims involved,” Lonsdale said.

Another family devastated by the crime spree was that of veteran San Diego police officer Les Stewart. He  was robbed and shot in the head on Oct. 29 while using an ATM in Escondido.

“I don’t know if Cindy will grow up while she’s in prison," his wife, Laura Stewart, said in court, "But I hope one day she’ll be a proper person who will do good in this society and make something out of herself."

Garcia’s mother, her sisters and a close family friend testified that Garcia had a difficult childhood and survived being kidnapped and trafficked to Mexico.

“Her story to many is like a movie, unbelievable yet true,” said a close family friend explaining how Garcia was an ordinary kid when she was abducted at age 13.

The defendant’s mother testified in Spanish and through an interpreter that her daughter dreamt of a home with Barbie dolls and a father figure.

Prosecutors say Hernandez was arrested for his relationship with Garcia, which began in 2010 when Garcia was 16.

Garcia told NBC 7 in a 2012 jail interview that she went along with the violence because she and Hernandez were in love.

However, in an exclusive interview with NBC 7, family members of Hernandez blamed the relationship with the teenager for turning a man they called a well-respected public servant into a violent criminal.

Deputy District Attorney Jim Koerber said Garcia was also sentenced on a separate case of conspiring to attack a correctional deputy while incarcerated.

She pleaded guilty to that offense and the punishment was included in the 10 year sentence handed down Friday.

She has close to two years of time served. Because it’s a violent felony, Garcia must serve 85 percent of the sentence according to Koerber.

The rest of the charges were dismissed.

A San Diego physician was arrested Friday, accused of sexual battery and child porn in connection with nude images of his patients allegedly found on his phone.

Dr. Jeffrey Abrams, 67, was arrested Friday on 24 felony counts, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.

Charges include 15 felony counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious victim and eight counts of sexual battery, according to prosecutors.

Abrams is also accused of one count of possession of child pornography. He was booked into the San Diego Central Jail on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Abrams had his license suspended by the State Medical Board after a state investigator reported finding hundreds of explicit photos of his patients on a phone.

Attorney Jessica Pride said five of her clients, all of whom plan to file a lawsuit against Abrams, feel safer and relieved now that he is behind bars.

Pride's client, referred to only as Jane Doe 1, was the first to bring the allegation against Abrams.

"Jane Doe 1 was afraid he was going to find out who she was and go to her house or potentially harm her," said Pride.

Jane Doe 1 says Abrams took nude photos of her during an exam on Jan. 4 at the Volunteers in Medicine free clinic in El Cajon.

The uninsured woman said she was examined for a complaint of belly button pain.

She claims Abrams told her take off all her clothes then inserted his gloved finger into her vagina and asked "You have pain?"

Then, she claims he had her stand in front of him, pushed her hair away from her exposed breasts, pulled out a cellphone and took five pictures of her.

A state investigator said more than 1300 explicit photos were on the doctor's work cellphone, a search warrant affidavit shows.

Many of the 1,300 explicit photos showed women’s vaginas, breasts and buttocks, documents alleged.

There was one explicit photo of a very young girl and video of a patient touching herself in the exam room with Abrams, the documents allege.

Volunteers in Medicine, issued a statement calling the allegations "very troubling" and said the allegations are not a reflection on  the staff at the health care center, the only free medical clinic in the East County.

Pride said her clients "feel violated, they feel confused, traumatized ... distrust in doctors."

Doctors who spoke with NBC 7 say although Abrams was an example of a bad apple, there are steps patients can take if they feel uncomfortable at a doctor's appointment: 

• Ask for a chaperon, for instance a female nurse.
• Ask for a female doctor
• Never be afraid to ask questions
• Remember, you can always say "No"

Highly anticipated new numbers show U.S. Rep. Scott Peters has a 4,491-vote lead over challenger Carl DeMaio Friday afternoon, after a late-week shakeup in the race for the 52nd Congressional District.

“We are thrilled with today’s vote update, particularly given the tough Election Night Democrats had across the country," said Peters' Campaign Manager MaryAnne Pintar in a statement. "This lead reflects the support Rep. Peters received from across the political spectrum and the tremendous Get Out the Vote effort by our field staff and hundreds of volunteers over the weekend and on Election Day."

NBC 7 has reached out to the DeMaio campaign and is waiting for a response.

Given Friday's vote-count posting in the hot-tempered 52nd Congressional District race, it seems oddsmakers would have to favor Peters, the first-term Democratic incumbent, to finish in the winner’s circle.

Polling experts say GOP challenger Carl DeMaio might need a final surge greater than his highest margins in the early going.

What could be keeping DeMaio and/or his backers awake at night is the scenario he suffered in the 2012 mayor's race: leading early in the vote count, only to have Bob Filner blast by him at the end.

Can he overtake Peters, with the decreasing number of ballots left to tabulate?

"Let us look forward to the counting of all votes,” DeMaio told a gathering of enthusiastic supporters on Election Night. “I am very confident we will have that great opportunity to take our 'New Generation' ideals to Washington."

That confidence on Tuesday morphed into concern by Thursday evening.

Momentum had turned against Team DeMaio -- and toward Team Peters, as did the momentum in Peters’ 2012 victory over three-term Republican incumbent Rep. Brian Bilbray.

This time, Peters is leading in a race where GOP voters showed up in force as they always do for mid-term elections.

"And what's really interesting about the 52nd race is that those voters didn't go for Carl DeMaio,” says Scott Lewis, editor-in-chief of Voice of San Diego.

“In large part, for some of the east-of-15, some parts of Point Loma -- some of the Republican strangleholds -- there was a very pronounced over-performance for Scott Peters in those districts,” Lewis added in a recording session for Sunday’s edition of NBC 7’s “Politically Speaking” program. “Which means that Republicans -- in a wave of Republican enthusiasm across the country -- voted for Scott Peters more than you might imagine."

Political strategists doubt that the sexual harassment allegations against DeMaio, coming late in the campaign, had great impact on the numbers.

Nor do they see major fallout from the bizarre caper involving a break-in at DeMaio’s campaign headquarters, with a stolen strategy binder winding up in the hands of Peters’ staff.

But they think the opposition’s strategy of depicting DeMaio as a tool of the Tea Party did take a toll.

"Across the country, the polls have shown that the name 'Tea Party' is really venomous, it really kills things,” says Republican political consultant John Dadian. “ Which is why the (Peters) campaign did their due diligence and put their money into several ads that emphasized the Tea Party. That was one of the major points that the Peters campaign knew was going to work."

There's also a school of thought that DeMaio shouldn't have chosen a different campaign team for his Congressional race than the one he had for his mayoral race.

“He surrounded himself with people who would take his orders, basically,” says Lewis. "He didn’t have a campaign manager or campaign consultant. He made a point of saying ‘This is the best campaign team I’ve ever had. But the fact is, they under-performed the entire country.”

Either way, DeMaio is playing catch-up now.

And he’s feverishly soliciting money to bankroll ballot-counting observers and a potential recount, if a final margin of defeat is small enough to make the effort cost-effective.

“I need your help,” DeMaio said in an email sent to campaign supporters Thursday evening. “We have hired a team of observers to monitor the counting process. We did not plan on this in the budget.”

Residents of a San Jose high rise say a peeping Tom is using a drone with a GoPro camera attached to spy on them.

San Jose Downtown Residents Association President SK Panda said one of his neighbors was in her 10th floor condo when she noticed a blinking LED light outside of her window.

"They saw a guy with a skateboard next to him -- with a device that he was looking at," Panda said. "So we think that image that was transmitting from the drone -- he was able to look at those images live."

The man and his drone have been seen outside the building multiple times by residents. When neighbors realized they might be being filmed by the drone, they, too, took out their cameras and snapped photos of the man.

"It's important for everyone to be vigilant, and so far we know that a couple of residents have gotten photos," said Sam Liccardo, San Jose city council member. "And I hope that will spark an opportunity to crowd source and catch this guy."

Liccardo adds that police can take action if someone is spotted spying with a drone.

"There are state laws on the books that prohibit snooping of this sort," he said.

An off-duty Border Patrol agent confronted a man at a Riverside County home early Saturday and fatally shot him, but was later arrested, authorities said.

The officer suspected of the shooting is 40-year-old Hemet resident John Demery, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies were dispatched at 12:47 a.m. to the 41100 block of Toledo Drive in East Hemet on what initially was an assault call, but when they pulled up to the home they found the victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Patty Stoyer said.

The victim, identified as Adam Thomas, 27, of Moreno Valley, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, Stoyer said.

Sheriff's deputies arrested suspect Demery in connection with the shooting. He was booked on suspicion of murder and remained in jail on $1 million bail, records showed.

The Department of Homeland Security placed an agent from its Murrieta station on administrative leave after their involvement in the shooting, according to a statement released later in the day.

The release did not identify Demery by name, but referred to the Riverside sheriff's investigation into the Hemet shooting.

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Internal Affairs and the U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector are cooperating with the Riverside Sheriff’s Office, who is leading the investigation," the release said.

City News Service contributed to this report.

A shooting led to a tense standoff Saturday evening in City Heights.

A 22-year-old man was shot in the abdomen just before 4 p.m. near 35th Street and Orange Avenue, according to San Diego police.

About an hour later, SWAT team members surrounded a home on Orange where police believed the shooting suspect was hiding.

Around 6 p.m., police announced they had taken a 38-year-old man into custody in connection to the shooting and were clearing the scene.

The area was blocked to traffic during the standoff.
 

A teen volunteer firefighter and his neighbor jumped into action Saturday after a Philadelphia Police officer's vehicle caught fire following a collision with a pickup truck.

• 2 Hurt After Car Crashes Into Building

Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Kimsey was traveling on 28th and Tasker streets around 5:25 p.m. Saturday when his police cruiser collided with a pickup truck. Kimsey was trapped inside as his vehicle burst into flames. 

A passenger inside the pickup truck was also injured in the crash. The driver however fled the scene on foot and was last seen running on the 2800 block of Tasker streets, according to police.

As Kimsey remained trapped inside the vehicle while the flames grew, Joe Chambers, a 17-year-old volunteer firefighter and his neighbor jumped into action.

"I saw that it was a cop car," Chambers said. "Right then I just started sprinting and did what I had to do."

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Chambers and the other man pulled Officer Kimsey from his burning car.

"The door was slammed," Chambers said. "It was dented and wouldn't open. The car caught fire. He said he couldn't feel his legs. We had to drag him through the window and he was ready for it."

As the two Good Samaritans pulled the officer to safety, other witnesses pulled the injured passenger from the pickup truck.

Officer Kimsey and the pickup truck passenger were both taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment. Kimsey is currently in stable condition. Officials have not yet revealed the second victim' condition. 

Chambers also suffered minor injuries and was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Later Saturday night, he visited Officer Kimsey and the two posed for a photo.

Police have not yet released a description of the driver who allegedly fled the scene. They continue to investigate.