Man dies after police use Taser to subdue him

By Times Wires
Published January 12, 2008

CORAL GABLES

A 29-year-old man died after a police officer used a Taser stun gun to subdue him Friday morning.

He was identified Friday afternoon as Xavier Jones.

Jones had been disruptive at a party near the University of Miami and resisted arrest, according to Miami-Dade police, whose homicide bureau is investigating the death.

MIAMI

Cruise line faulted for crew deaths in 2003

A boiler explosion on the cruise ship SS Norway that killed eight crew members in 2003 was likely caused by Norwegian Cruise Line's improper operation, maintenance and inspection of the steam chamber, federal investigators said.

Part of the boiler had "extensive fatigue cracking" and deteriorated materials that weakened the metal and caused it to rupture under the intense steam pressure, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report quietly adopted in October.

Evidence "indicates that NCL shipboard engineers were aware of the cracking condition but did not take appropriate action to fix the problem," the report said.

BARTOW

Father charged in baby's beating death

A Winter Haven man admitted to sheriff's detectives that he brutally beat his 4-month-old daughter to death on Christmas Day and had beaten her for months because he wanted a boy instead of a girl, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

Marcos Gomez-Romero, 28, was indicted Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of his daughter, Ariana Rodriguez Romero.

During a taped statement, according to the Sheriff's Office, Gomez-Romero said he had wanted a boy when his daughter was born. He said that "every time he looked at her he became annoyed and angry because she was a girl. He would call her an ugly girl, a prostitute and deny she was his daughter."

[Last modified January 11, 2008, 23:20:51]