AP-US-MISSING-GIRL-FOUND-TIKTOK

TikTok rescue: Girl got help using silent distress signal

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — Law enforcement officials say a 16-year-old girl held captive by a 61-year-old man was rescued on an interstate highway in Kentucky after another driver noticed her making a silent distress signal with her hand. The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office says the driver is being held on charges of unlawful imprisonment and possession of material showing a sexual performance by a minor. The girl reported missing by her parents in Asheville, North Carolina. The distress signal promoted on TikTok is to raise your hand showing your palm with your thumb extended, and then tuck your thumb into your palm and lower your fingers over it, as if to trap the thumb.

FATAL CRASH-PLEA

N. Carolina motorist gets up to 27 years in fatal accident

BOLIVIA, N.C. (AP) — A district attorney says a North Carolina man will spend up to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to hitting two people with his vehicle as they stood in a driveway in February. News outlets report the Brunswick County District Attorney’s Office says in a news release that Dakota Reiswig of Brunswick County pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison. Reiswig drove across the center line on N.C. Highway 904 and hit Robert Winslow of Cary and Mint Greene of Ocean Isle Beach. Both died at the scene.

DRUG SUPPLIER SENTENCED

Drug network supplier from N. Carolina sentenced to prison

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A federal prosecutor says a man identified as a supplier of a drug network in western North Carolina has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. The acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina said in a news release that 34-year-old Matthew Wondra of Murphy was also ordered last week to serve five years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. Documents show that between September 2018 and August 2019, Wondra bought and distributed methamphetamine and heroin. Records show Wondra frequently traveled to Georgia to buy methamphetamine and heroin, then distributed it to dealers in western North Carolina.

COASTAL STORM

Storm closes section of NC barrier islands’ road to mainland

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — A storm at the North Carolina coast has closed a section of the only road linking Hatteras Island to the mainland. The state Department of Transportation said N.C. Highway 12 was closed starting Sunday morning from Rodanthe north to the Marc Basnight Bridge at Oregon Inlet due to ocean overwash that breached dunes protecting the road. The department said the stretch could remain closed through Tuesday, since crews must clear the road and rebuild dunes. The weather service posted coastal flood and high wind warnings for the Outer Banks, and said significant flooding also was expected along the southern Pamlico Sound and lower Neuse River.

NIGHT CLUB MELEE

1 dead, 5 wounded from shootings at N. Carolina night club

AHOSKIE, N.C. (AP) — Police are investigating a weekend shooting melee at a northeastern North Carolina night club that left one person dead and five others wounded. The shootings originated from the Alaysia Bar & Grill in Ahoskie, where local officers arrived early Saturday. There they found over 100 people outside the parking lot of the Ahoskie Inn. Officers found the dead body of Jairen Lyles of Aulander lying on the ground. Fights broke out in the parking lot while officers tried to contain the crowd and provide help. Ahoskie Police Chief James Asbell called it a “chaotic crime scene.” 

FLIPPED VEHICLE-FATAL

Police: Motorist stopping for crash dies when struck by SUV

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Police say a woman who stopped to help motorists trapped in a vehicle on a central North Carolina road was killed when she was struck by another car. Durham police say Jasmine Harbison of Raleigh died early Sunday. It happened when she and her boyfriend pulled over to assist crash victims in a two-car collision. One vehicle had flipped over and rested in a far-left northbound lane. That’s where police say a sport utility vehicle struck Harbison. Three other people were taken to the hospital for injuries. Both crashes remained under investigation on Sunday.

POLICE SHOOTING-NORTH CAROLINA

Armed man, officers involved in fatal NC shooting identified

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two police officers serving in North Carolina’s largest city have been placed on administrative leave while the circumstances of a fatal shooting of an armed man outside a Walmart are investigated. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on Saturday identified the armed man who died Friday as 23-year-old Derrell Lamar Raney. The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into what happened. Police say a security guard contracted by Walmart at an east Charlotte store told officers a man pointed a firearm at him. The police chief says the officers found the subject in the parking lot and that the man also pointed a firearm at them.   

CIGARETTE SALES-INDICTMENTS

Indictment charges 24 with money laundering, tax fraud

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Prosecutors say a North Carolina federal grand jury has returned a sealed, indictment charging 24 people in a scheme to defraud the federal government and four states of millions of dollars in tax revenues from cigarette sales. The acting U.S. Attorney for eastern North Carolina announced the the charges and says the defendants were arrested on Thursday. A grand jury alleges that cigarettes were bought from wholesale outlets for future shipment to Virginia, New Jersey and New York. The various charges carry fines of up to $500,000 and maximum prison sentences of 20 years. A news release says the indictments were handed down last month. 

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