MARIANNA —  Officers have arrested a Marianna father and son for possession of controlled substances and attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, police reported Tuesday.

Officers with the Jackson County Drug Task Force Monday stopped a blue Nissan being driven by Ronald E. Grant Jr., 52, and his son, 27-year-old Ronald E Grant III, on a traffic infraction. During the traffic stop at the entrance to Commercial Park Drive, investigators found several items used to manufacture methamphetamine in a quantity large enough to warrant trafficking charges, according to Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

A search of the vehicle produced 42 grams of pseudoephedrine pills, five lithium batteries and a bottle of lye. A number of these items were concealed in the vehicle. Also, the search produced 14 loose pills deputies identified as hydrocodone, JCSO reported.

The total amount of pseudoephedrine pills located in the vehicle was in excess of the trafficking threshold, officers said.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the father and son duo were arrested and booked into the Jackson County Jail to await first appearance. 

PANAMA CITY — The remaining suspects who fled the state as police discovered the body of Tavish Greene in the trunk of a car have been extradited into Bay County.

Darryl Mack, 21, and Tyricka Woullard, 20, are being held without bond after being extradited Monday from Covington, Ga., on conspiracy to commit armed robbery charges. Dontavis Terrell Thomas, 22, also has been charged with conspiring to rob Greene days before police discovered the 24-year-old’s body in the trunk of his Chevy Malibu behind an abandoned house at 526 E. Eighth Court.

None of the suspects has been charged with murder, but police said they suspect the three played a role in events leading up to Greene’s death. Police have indicated additional charges will follow the extradition of Mack and Woullard to Bay County, where Thomas already has been booked into jail.

Police reports said the three suspects lured Greene to Woullard’s residence at 3710 W. 21st St., where they planned to rob him the morning of July 19. Thomas and Mack allegedly used phone calls and text messages to draw Greene into a trap through Woullard, his ex-girlfriend. The three hid inside, waiting for Greene to appear so they could rob him of money and illegal narcotics; Woullard and Mack then fled to Georgia the day after, police reported.

Greene was found July 24 dead in the trunk of his car. The nature of his injuries have not been released.

Police have not disclosed what they believe transpired between the alleged robbery and the discovery of Greene’s body the following Thursday.

Woullard also is charged with scheming to defraud, according to court documents. Judge Shane Vann decided to hold Woullard without bond because of a parole violation on grand theft charges.

Mack also is being held without bond for previous criminal convictions.

“The state feels Mack is an extreme flight risk because he and Woullard already fled to Georgia,” prosecutor Bob Sombathy said during first appearances Tuesday. “He was also found with evidence used to commit the crime.”

The State Attorney’s Office will be pursuing a felony possession of a firearm charge against Mack, after Georgia authorities found a gun on him, Sombathy said. 

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Police have arrested a Panama City Beach man who allegedly attempted to molest a girl younger than 16 years of age, Panama City Beach Police announced.

Michael David Dollar, 54, was arrested Monday after allegedly inviting a girl under 16 years of age into his home in the Beachwalk condominiums at 17751 Panama City Beach Parkway. The minor told police as she and a friend passed Dollar’s residence, he invited them in because he wanted to show them his drum set and aquarium. Once inside the minor said Dollar attempted to molest her before she told him no and pulled away.

She left; but once outside, Dollar was able to talk her into coming back inside. She again entered the residence. Dollar then locked the door and invited her to engage in sexual contact with him. She unlocked the door and exited the residence without further incident, police reported.

Police later arrested Dollar on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation on a victim younger than 16 years old. 

PANAMA CITY — An armed man wanted in connection with an aggravated battery that left his wife paralyzed last week was in critical condition Tuesday night after an hour-long standoff with law enforcement officers ended with an exchange of gunfire with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen.

Officials initially announced Aaron Lepak, 40, had died after trading gunfire with McKeithen at the Budget Inn, 3910 U.S. 98, at about 4:40 p.m., but they said emergency personnel were able to get a pulse back. Lepak had barricaded himself in the motel Tuesday as officers attempted to serve a warrant on him for the aggravated battery incident last week, according to BCSO officials.

As traffic and pedestrians began to amass outside the motel, Sheriff McKeithen and several officers gained access to Lepak and attempted to convince him to surrender peacefully. Negotiations became tense before both sides fired a shot and Lepak was critically wounded, officials said.

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“Lepak was growing increasingly agitated,” said Ruth Corley, BCSO spokeswoman. “Sheriff McKeithen noticed he was getting more despondent and waving his gun around, and the situation began to get out of hand in terms of danger. It escalated way beyond what was acceptable.”

Lepak waved his gun in a reckless manner toward officers when McKeithen fired, Corley said.

Lepak also discharged his firearm, she added.

One of the Budget Inn’s tenants, who requested to not be named, said warrant officers pounded on the door of neighboring room 31 at about 3:30 p.m., demanding the person inside open up.

“He yelled back, ‘I got a pistol, and I’m not coming out,’ “ the neighbor said he could hear through the separating wall. “That’s when all hell broke loose.”

At one point, the neighbor said, he could hear Lepak demand to speak with his mother in person as the motel was evacuated. She waited on scene as negotiations continued. An hour later, shrieks of the woman identified as Lepak’s mother pierced the humming of engines along the busy highway.

Before the shooting began, numerous Panama City police and BCSO surrounded the 3-acre property of the Budget Inn. SWAT crews edged closer to the room in flak jackets, with assault rifles drawn. Messages were being relayed on the status of negotiations through the cracked door of room 31. Lepak was presumed armed and dangerous because of the circumstances surrounding his charge of aggravated battery.

Lepak, a Springfield resident, was wanted in connection to a domestic violence issue between he and his wife July 27. A warrant for his arrest was issued Friday when he allegedly fled his home, taking a handgun with him.

Details of the incident were unclear Tuesday. However, Rhonda Lepak is currently in critical condition, paralyzed, in a local hospital as a result of the incident, BCSO said.

A check of the Bay Circuit Clerk’s website shows Lepak has been charged with several felonies over the past two decades.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will be conducting an investigation of the shooting. McKeithen was placed on administrative leave pending a preliminary investigation, standard procedure in a deputy-involved shooting. 

PANAMA CITY — A man has barricaded himself into a local motel Tuesday afternoon as law enforcement negotiates with him to come out.

Few details were immediately available Tuesday, but law enforcement from several agencies were working the scene at the Budget Inn on U.S. 98 in Panama City. The man is believed to be armed.

At 4:45 p.m., reports from the scene indicated the man had been shot and was critically wounded. He was being transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Westbound traffic on U.S. 98 in the area of the motel, which is between Isabella and Drummond avenues, should expect delays as law enforcement works the scene.

A News Herald reporter and photographer are on the scene and will update this story as information becomes available.

BASCOM — Jackson County authorities are asking the public for help in finding a missing person.

Will "Larry" Daniels, 59, left his home around 10 p.m. Sunday, and Jackson County Sheriff's officials said in a news release Daniels' destination was unknown.

He was driving a a white 2014 Toyota Tundra truck with a cross on the back bumper or back window, with a Florida disable veteran's license plate. He is described as a black male, last seen wearing blue jean shorts and a blue and green striped pullover shirt, according to the release.

Authorities said Daniesls requires medication and he does not have it with him. Anyone with information regarding Daniels is asked to call the Jackson County Sheriff's Office at 850-482-9648.

PANAMA CITY -- Police have arrested a man who allegedly got a minor drunk before sexually assaulting him, the Panama City Police Department announced Wednesday.

Alfred A. Wagner was arrested after the victim’s aunt informed detectives that Wagner, on July 30, had sexually assaulted her nephew on two separate occasions. The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified and conducted an interview of the juvenile, police reported.

On the two occasions, the juvenile stated, Wagner gave the child alcohol to the point of intoxication and then he sexually assaulted the victim. Both occurrences happened in Wagner’s home. At the conclusion of the investigation, a warrant was obtained for Wagner and investigators arrested him.

Wagner was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of lewd or lascivious battery, victim 12 to 15 years old. He taken to Bay County Jail.

PANAMA CITY — The Springfield man involved in an hour-long, armed standoff with law enforcement turned his gun on himself after Sheriff Frank McKeithen shot him in the torso, authorities said Wednesday.

Bay County Sheriff’s deputies had sought Aaron Lepak, 40, in connection to an aggravated battery incident that left his wife paralyzed before law enforcement cornered the armed man Tuesday at the Budget Inn, 3910 U.S. 98. Officials initially announced Lepak had died on the scene after negotiations became unruly, he waived his firearm in McKeithen’s direction and was subsequently shot in the room, according to BCSO reports.

As is the standard procedure in officer-involved shootings, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is investigating the events that led up to the gunfire, but BCSO released preliminary evidence Wednesday indicating at least one of Lepak’s critical wounds was self-inflicted.

Maj. Tommy Ford, who had a direct phone lineto the room during negotiations, said McKeithen did not draw his gun until discussions deteriorated and Lepak began waving his firearm in the direction of the sheriff’, who is a trained hostage or crisis negotiator

“Sheriff McKeithen felt that in Lepak’s mind only one of them was leaving that room alive,” Ford said. “At that point (McKeithen) drew his firearm and fired several times.”

Lepak fell backward, then placed his pistol in his mouth and fired, Ford said.

He was not breathing as BCSO medical personnel rushed on the scene. EMS staff were able to regain a pulse en route to a local hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition. Lepak remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Springfield Police Department wanted Lepak in connection to a July 27 domestic violence incident between he and his wife, which left Rhonda Lepak permanently disfigured.

According to the probable cause affidavit, during a verbal dispute at their East Ninth Street home, Aaron Lepak reportedly grabbed Rhonda Lepak and picked her up before placing her in a headlock.

When she came to, she couldn’t feel her legs and couldn’t get up on to her feet, Rhonda Lepak told police.

After lying on the ground pleading for help, Aaron Lepak placed her on the sofa. He later carried her to their bedroom. The next day, Rhonda Lepak said she convinced him to call for help and EMS transported her to the local hospital where she learned she had been paralyzed, the affidavit stated.

She is still under hospital care.

On Aug. 1, the mother of Aaron Lepak, Catherine Lepak, filed a missing person report with Springfield police before investigators discovered he was in hiding, Chief Philip Thorne said.

He retreated to the Budget Inn until authorities confronted him Tuesday, and 90 minutes of negotiations ended in gunfire.

McKeithen was placed on administrative leave pending FDLE’s investigation, a standard procedure in a deputy-involved shooting. McKeithen is not bound to that policy, Ford said, but symbolically imposed the standard upon himself.

BCSO will follow up the FDLE investigation with an administrative investigation of its own to evaluate BCSO’s response. 

PANAMA CITY BEACH — John Montin returned to his hometown last year after a 20-year odyssey that saw him confined to a mental hospital even though, he claims in a lawsuit, he was not mentally ill.

Montin, 52, of Panama City Beach, was released from a Nebraska hospital last year, 20 years after jurors acquitted him of attempted murder and found him not responsible by reason of insanity of other charges. He was committed as a result of the verdict.

His lawsuit alleges the hospital and its staff members relied on incorrect information to hold him long after his illness had been successfully treated. In that time, he said he spent a year in solitary confinement and missed his mother’s death and funeral. His suit, filed last month in the district of Nebraska federal court, seeks millions of dollars in damages.

Montin grew up in St. Andrews, where his family ran a sporting goods store. He joined the Army, then worked as a commercial fisherman for several years until he hurt himself. He had a workman’s compensation claim that was resolved and included enough back pay to either go back to school or start a small business.

But Montin wasn’t sure which path he would take, so he set out on a vision quest of sorts. He headed west on a camping trip to do some “soul searching.”

“I call it the camping trip to hell,” he said.

In the Army he’d been stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington for a time, and he returned to explore the area without “playing Army.” He spent some time at Glacier National Park, and he was headed back to Florida when he found himself in Nebraska one night.

The local papers at the time said he wandered onto an older couple’s property and began shouting and scaring the residents. The first officer to respond would say Montin shot at him, and there were allegations he opened fire on several law enforcement officers. After an 11-hour standoff, Montin was arrested. Nobody was hurt.

The story jurors heard was different, and most of the charges against him were dismissed for lack of evidence. Still, he was diagnosed with mental illness and committed.

Montin said the doctors at the hospital relied on false or faulty information when they re-evaluated his condition. The hospital, Lincoln Regional Center, is operated by Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services, which does not comment on pending litigation, a spokeswoman said.

Montin didn’t want to talk too much about the lawsuit either, either.

For now, Montin is back home, trying to rebuild a life. He’s working and trying to resolve issues of his parents’ estate. He’s met a woman with children, and he is enjoying being involved in their lives.

“The truth doesn’t make you right, and being right doesn’t mean you’re going to win,” he said.

CHIPLEY -- Several community members are contributing to the family of a former Chipley High School graduate after the 20-year-old was found drowned in a submerged vehicle earlier this week.

Leon County Sheriff’s Office divers found a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo submerged in the Ochlockonee River near Tallahassee Sunday morning with the body of 20-year-old Jordan Rae Nedeau inside. Authorities were allegedly later told one of Nedeau’s Tallahassee Community College classmates was intoxicated when he drove the SUV into the river with Nedeau as a passenger, according to LCSO.

Since, a donation chest on the gofundme.com website has accrued more than $7,000 to offset costs incurred by the family from the tragic event.

Nedeau was a graduate of CHS, class of 2012.

The family will receive friends Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Thomasville Road Baptist Church in Tallahassee. A memorial service will follow. 

SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield Police Chief Philip Thorne was one of two people named Wednesday to the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking.

Gov. Rick Scott announced the appointments of Thorne and Lee Lowry of Tampa.

Thorne, 59, fills a vacant seat and is appointed for a term ending June 30, 2018.

Lowry, 43, of Tampa, is the past president of The Junior League of Tampa. She also fills a vacant seat.

PANAMA CITY -- Police have arrested a man who allegedly got a minor drunk before sexually assaulting him, the Panama City Police Department announced Wednesday.

Alfred A. Wagner was arrested after the victim’s aunt informed detectives that Wagner, on July 30, had sexually assaulted her nephew on two separate occasions. The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified and conducted an interview of the juvenile, police reported.

On the two occasions, the juvenile stated, Wagner gave the child alcohol to the point of intoxication and then he sexually assaulted the victim. Both occurrences happened in Wagner’s home. At the conclusion of the investigation, a warrant was obtained for Wagner and investigators arrested him.

Wagner was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of lewd or lascivious battery, victim 12 to 15 years old. He taken to Bay County Jail.

PANAMA CITY -- The Bay County Medical Examiner has released the cause of death of 24-year-old Tavish Greene, who was found in the trunk of his own car after a series of shooting homicides.

The Bay County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday the death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds.

Greene was found in the trunk of his Chevy Malibu on July 24 behind an abandoned home at 526 E. Eighth Court. Three people have been arrested for conspiring to rob Greene days before his body was discovered.

Darryl Mack, 21, and Tyricka Woullard, 20, were extradited Monday from Covington, Ga., on conspiracy to commit armed robbery charges. Dontavis Terrell Thomas, 22, also had been charged with conspiring to rob Greene.

None have been charged with Greene’s death. 

TAMPA (AP) — University of South Florida forensic experts announced Thursday that for the first time they have identified the remains of a boy buried at a now-closed Florida reform school where some guards were accused of brutality.

The researchers said they used DNA and other tests to identify the remains of George Owen Smith, who was 14 when he disappeared from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in 1940. They couldn't say how Smith died. Official records indicated 31 burials at the school, but researchers found the remains of 55 people during a four-month excavation last year.

Researchers said Smith's body was found in a hastily-buried grave wrapped only in a burial shroud. His DNA matched a sample taken from his sister.

"We may never know the full circumstances of what happened to Owen or why his case was handled the way it was," Erin Kimmerle, the lead researcher and an associate anthropology professor, said in a news release. "But we do know that he now will be buried under his own name and beside family members who longed for answers."

University officials said Owen's mother wrote the school's superintendent, Millard Davidson, in December 1940 asking about her son. She got a letter back saying no one knew where he was.

In January 1941, his family was told he was found dead after escaping from the school, the university said. The family traveled to Marianna to claim Owen's body, but they were led to an unmarked grave.

Owen's sister Ovell Krell said her mother never accepted that her son was dead and spent the last decades of her life waiting for him to return home.

A press conference was held Thursday to give further details.

Some former students from the 1950s and 1960s have accused employees and guards at the Panhandle school of physical and sexual abuse, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded after an investigation that it couldn't substantiate or dispute the claims. Many former Dozier inmates from that era call themselves "The White House Boys" after the white building where they say the worst abuse took place.

Researchers began last September excavating the graveyard at the school, which closed in 2011 for budgetary reasons. The dig finished in December.

The school opened in 1900 and housed over 500 boys at its peak in the 1960s, most of them for minor offenses such as truancy or running away from home.

In 1968, when corporal punishment was outlawed at state-run institutions, then-Gov. Claude Kirk visited and found the institution in disrepair with leaky ceilings, holes in walls, cramped sleeping quarters, no heating for the winters and buckets used as toilets.

"If one of your kids were kept in such circumstances," he said then, "you'd be up there with rifles."

All the bodies found were interred in coffins either made at the school or bought from manufacturers, university officials have said. Some were found under roads or overgrown trees, well away from the white, metal crosses marking the 31 officially recorded graves.

Officials have said that it's unclear if there are other graves elsewhere on the school site. The team excavated about five acres of the property's 1,400 acres.

SPRINGFIELD — The 12-year-old accused of stealing two school buses has struck again, this time allegedly attempting to flee the state in a truck stolen from a neighbor, police reported Thursday.

Authorities, however, are aiming to curb the juvenile’s criminal inclinations this time around.

Michael Wade Propst has been arrested and placed in juvenile detention twice in the past two months for stealing Bay District school buses. Propst was once again arrested and extradited from Jackson County to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) on Thursday morning on new charges of grand theft auto and damaging an electronic monitoring device, according to police reports.

Police said Propst caused hundreds of dollars in damage to his mother’s car while attempting to steal it before 11 p.m. Wednesday when the Springfield Police Department was alerted to a grand theft auto at a nearby address. After a failed attempt to crank his mother’s car, Propst fled; almost at the same time, a 1990 Chevrolet truck was stolen from one of the neighboring homes, police reported.

Authorities began searching for Propst and had a lead that he was headed to Dothan, Ala. Early Thursday morning, authorities found Propst and the stolen truck at a residence in Campbellton.

Apparently, the young Propst had cut off his electronic ankle monitor, which was part of his punishment for the previous grand theft autos, Springfield police said.

Propst now faces three felony charges for damaging the monitoring device, attempting to steal a vehicle and succeeding in stealing the other vehicle.

The State’s Attorney’s Office said Propst is very much on its radar but has no intention of waiving the 12-year-old into the adult legal system for a nonviolent offense. Instead, they will be recommending a punishment exceeding the maximum 21 days juveniles can serve in detention facilities, according to SAO spokesman David Angier.

“If he violated probation, there would be no way we would send a 12-year-old to adult prison,” Angier said. “We can recommend to the judge a placement of the youth in a residential program under supervision, where he would be monitored and given rehabilitation.”

If the judge agreed and he were found guilty, Propst could be placed under supervision for an indeterminate amount of time. The punishment could last months or even years — depending on how quickly the juvenile meets criteria outlined by DJJ. They would then recommend his release to a judge, but the impetus ultimately would fall on Propst.

Propst allegedly stole a school bus from a Parker residence in late June before Wal-Mart employees at the Front Beach Drive location noticed it awkwardly maneuvering around the parking lot and called police. When Propst was released from detention three weeks later, he allegedly took a school bus at Parker Elementary School before being spotted in Franklin County, driving erratically.

DJJ would not discuss specifics of Propst’s cases or punishments for each incident. He is currently in detention awaiting an appearance before a local judge. 

PANAMA CITY — An Indiana man arrested during Spring Break for attempting to outrun officers after hitting a deputy and almost running over several other officers was sentenced Thursday to about a year in jail, thousands of dollars in restitution and must write apology letters.

Braeshawn Kendrick Boyd, a 19-year-old from New Albany, Ind., was sentenced to serve 360 days in jail and repay $11,321 in damages from a March police pursuit that ended in the hospitalization of two law officers.

A uniformed deputy witnessed what he suspected was a drug deal between someone in a red 1995 Honda Civic and a pedestrian in the Spinnaker Beach Club parking lot at 8795 Thomas Drive. Boyd then sped off, struck the deputy and caused him to roll up and off the car’s hood.

Deputies began pursuing Boyd as the car headed east on Thomas Drive without its headlights on. Boyd’s vehicle continued until it ran over a concrete curb, bursting the rear tire and causing Boyd to lose control of the car, FHP reported.

The car careened to a halt on the north side of Thomas Drive, where deputies tried to block the car from escaping. However, Boyd was able to crank the car and accelerate around one BCSO vehicle, then crash into two other BCSO vehicles.

BCSO patrol vehicles sustained about $3,500 in damage and two deputies underwent medical treatment.

Boyd also was ordered to write individual apology letters to the officers involved. 

PANAMA CITY -- The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a man who has spent fraudulent checks in various stores throughout the Panhandle, officials announced Thursday.

BCSO released several photographs this afternoon in an attempt to identify theman suspected of using counterfeit traveler’s cheques in this area. The suspect used counterfeit traveler’s checks at various discount stores in Bay County and the Florida Panhandle. In order to process the transactions he used a stolen Tennessee driver’s license with the name Lionel Lymon.

The suspect is described as a black male with very dark complexion. He has tattoos on his face. The suspect appears to be in his mid 30’s, about 5’7” and 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white tank top, grey shorts, and a black and red baseball cap. He is believed to be driving a 4 door Black Charger.

Anyone with information on this suspect is asked to contact the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 747-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 785-TIPS. 

SPRINGFIELD — Members of a Springfield family have received hundreds of threats to their personal safety after posting a pet picture to Facebook and being cited for animal cruelty, officials confirmed Thursday.

The picture, which has drawn the ire of hundreds from around the country, depicts two young girls in a vehicle who have fashioned a pulley system through a clothes hanging latch with a jump rope. On one end of the rope are the two young girls who appear to be laughing playfully, while on the other end of the rope is a small dog dangling by its haunches.

The picture was reported to Bay County Animal Control before being relayed to Springfield Police Department. The grandmother of the two girls, Loretta Bozeman, has been cited with a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals for posting the picture.

The family has received more than 500 death threats and threats to their personal safety through social media websites, Chief Philip Thorne said.

Family members have since reached out to media outlets to clarify that the girls were re-enacting an animal rescue from a TV show.

The small dog pictured and another dog at the residence have been taken into the custody of Animal Control. A judge will look at the case to determine whether the animals should be returned to the home.

PANAMA CITY — Bay District Schools is pulling out all the stops as it prepares to receive students still rattled by all the news of recent shooting deaths in Bay County.

“We’re afraid the violence that’s happened over the summer will come to our schools,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt.

Husfelt invited community leaders and organizations to an open meeting on Thursday to discuss the impact recent gun violence may have on Bay County students returning to school on Aug. 19. Husfelt used the forum to present facts and events that have shaped the reality of violence in public schools across the country.

He also made a special plea to local ministers.

“We just need you to stand up and talk to people about how important this is, because you have pipelines,” Husfelt said during his presentation.

Husfelt called on the clergy directly for their support in addressing students’ fears about violence and to provide encouragement during this critical time.

“This really is about getting the community involved in schools,” Husfelt said in an interview.

Husfelt said the district is not seeking a presence of religion in schools, but is instead asking some of the city’s most influential speakers to use their positions to move church congregations as members of the community to build a massive support network for students.

“There is no school immune to violence,” Husfelt said. “We need all hands on deck now.”

Over a dozen ministers at the meeting offered support and strategies for reaching students. In recent weeks, the clergy has been instrumental in providing grief counseling to the families and neighbors of shooting victims.

One of Husfelt’s largest concerns is how students will react to one another and the relatives of the victims in weeks to come after school starts. He said problems in schools now develop with the same speed at which students communicate over social media, making their reactions to violence much harder to manage.

“The sense of urgency is what’s driving us,” said Janice Lucas, organizer of the newly-formed LEAD Coalition. “This problem that has resulted in the deaths of young men in our community is larger than any one entity can handle.” 

The district feels the odds of containing negative reactions to violence are stacked so high against it now that the only choice is to ask all able resources to bring the most critical component of support to the table.

“It’s availability,” said pastor Braden Friday at Living Water Ministries. “The kids just need to know that someone’s going to be there.” 

Want To Go?

-Who: The LEAD Coalition

-What: Forum on response to gun violence

-When: Tuesday at 6 p.m.

-Where: A.D. Harris Learning Center, 819 E. 11^th St.

GREENWOOD — A Jackson County woman died Thursday from injuries she sustained in a one-vehicle crash a day earlier, troopers reported.

Mary H. Mack, 73, of Greenwood, was traveling eastbound on U.S. 90 near Mayo Road about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday when her 2006 Ford SUV exited the highway and collided with an oak tree, according to a Florida Highway Patrol news release. The vehicle began to spin and burst into flames after it stopped south of U.S. 90, trapping Mack inside.

Police and fire officials were able to free Mack from the vehicle, and she was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, FHP reported, before later being taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville. She died there Thursday, according to the release.

Mack was not wearing a seat belt, troopers reported.

WESTVILLE — A Westville family of four lost their home to a fire before dawn Thursday, but no one was injured.

According resident Gail Tate, mother of five, the fire started before 5:30 a.m. at their residence at the intersection of County 163 and Peacock Lane in Westville.

“I woke up coughing around 5:30 this morning and smelt something like smoke,” Gail said. “I open the door to the kitchen and it was nothing but a wall of flames. I managed to get my son, Samuel, out and called the fire department but it couldn’t be saved.”

Arriving at the scene to help battle the blaze were volunteer fire departments from Pittman, Pine Log and New Hope.

Gail Tate lived with her husband, Steve and two sons, Samuel, 18, and Isaac, 12.

She said of all the possessions she lost, the one she would miss the most was a portrait of her son who died 14 years ago at the age of 12 to complications of cerebral palsy.

“That’s what hurts most,” she said. “I know God has us handled because He is an almighty God. There’s valleys and hills and God will provide.”

She said believes this was the third of a series of arson attempts on her home in the last several weeks. In the first, a lit bottle of accelerant that was thrown under the house, but was contained with damage only to one window and the second was a lit bottle of accelerant thrown through the kitchen window, burning a portion of the kitchen.

The incident is currently under investigation by the State Fire Marshal and no information regarding the incident has been released as the investigation is ongoing.

American Red Cross was present to provide the family with a stay at a local hotel for several nights as well as a debit card in the amount of $650 to help with immediate needs.