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Police kill teen in fatal sword attack

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 28, 2007

Police killed a teenager who they said used a sword to kill his mother and injure three other people, including an officer. Investigators had not determined the motive for the attacks, Chief Doug Schmitt said Friday. Officers called to the family's home Friday found 14-year-old Rebekah Gilchrist with several cuts on her lower arms and hands. The officers then spotted her brother, 16-year-old Josh Gilchrist, swinging a long sword, Schmitt said. Schmitt said the boy struck one of the officers several times before the others fired several shots, killing him. Police then found the body of the boy's mother, 49-year-old mom Betty Gilchrist, and an injured foreign exchange student. Police said the boy's father, Jon Gilchrist, was not home during the attacks in the east-central South Dakota town. Rebekah Gilchrist was taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls. The unidentified exchange student and the officer were taken to another hospital and released, authorities said.

Defendant argues statute has passed

JACKSON, MISS. - The reputed Ku Klux Klan member accused in the 1964 slayings of two black men has asked a federal judge to dismiss the charges, saying the statute of limitations has expired. Assistant federal defender Kathy Nester filed the motion Friday on behalf of James Ford Seale, who pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton said Saturday he had not seen the motion and could not comment. Seale, 71, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted in the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, who prosecutors say were beaten and thrown into the Mississippi River.

Missing priest named a person of interest

Police were searching for a Catholic priest they believe may have sexually assaulted and struck a woman at a church. An employee of Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church said she had been assaulted and hit in the head with an object by a priest Friday evening. Investigators consider the Rev. George Chaanine a person of interest, police spokesman Bill Cassell said.

Navy calls off search for helicopter crew

The Navy called off a search Saturday for three missing crew members of a helicopter that crashed in the ocean about 50 miles off California's southern coast. Friday's crash during a training mission off the USS Bonhomme Richard left one sailor dead, and the Navy had searched for the remaining crew through Saturday afternoon. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Meydenbauer said it is "extremely unlikely" the unidentified three survived. Meydenbauer said the Navy knew the sunken helicopter's location but hadn't decided whether to retrieve it.

Teacher may be fired over anatomy class

A teacher has been barred from classes for asking for volunteers in his coed seventh-grade health class to draw male genitalia on the blackboard during a lesson on human anatomy and sexuality, school officials say. Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio will ask trustees to fire the teacher, whose name was not made public, Yonkers schools spokeswoman Jerilynne Fierstein said Friday.

[Last modified January 28, 2007, 00:46:22]