Around the state

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 30, 2002

Firefighter held in hit-run

BRADENTON -- A firefighter has been arrested in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident Thursday morning, authorities said.

Robert Briesacher, 30, was arrested Thursday at his home and charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Briesacher is a lieutenant at an east Manatee County fire station whose rescue unit responded to the accident.

Police said William Mathers, 49, of Bradenton, was walking along a road when Briesacher struck him with his pickup, knocking Mathers into a ditch.

Briesacher, who was jailed, was suspended with pay.

Grant to buy Collier marsh

NAPLES -- The state Department of Environmental Protection is receiving a $1-million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to buy a 1,000-acre marsh in Collier County.

American crocodiles and dozens of other species in the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve are downstream from the McIlvane Marsh.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which runs Rookery Bay, sought the grant to restore the marsh's historic sheet flow that roads and canals have interrupted, said Gary Lytton, Rookery Bay director.

The less restricted sheet flow from rains will help the marsh filter out contaminants.

2 Floridians die in plane

BASTIAN, Va. -- Federal investigators on Friday were examining the wreckage of a small plane that went down in a remote wooded mountain area late Wednesday, killing two Floridians.

The victims were Robert E. Brown, 66, of Tavares, and Rebecca Freya Anderson, 62, of Eustis. They were en route to Bluefield, W.Va., for a funeral, said Virginia State Police.

Brown was piloting his Piper Arrow single-engine plane when it crashed in the Jefferson National Forest during freezing rain.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Cop's vest stops bullet

MIAMI -- A protective vest saved an undercover Miami-Dade police officer from serious injury when he was shot in the back.

Officer Daniel Fernandez was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital early Thursday, a few hours after he was shot Wednesday night in Liberty City.

Jimmy D. Worthy, 42, of Miami, was charged with attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and resisting arrest with violence.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright