Calif. Limo Fire Survivor Describes Ordeal

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One of the survivors of the tragic limousine fire on California's San Mateo-Hayward Bridge is telling a heartbreaking story of loss.

Speaking with great difficulty, as if she were shell-shocked, Neila Arrellano, 36, of Oakland, said she lost five of her friends Saturday night after they were trapped by flames inside a stretch limousine on the bridge over the San Francisco Bay.

Watching the interview is painful. Arrellano utters words through tears and gasps. English is not her first language and it is also a bit of a challenge to understand everything that  she is saying.

But she did recount what she remembered, most of all, that there was smoke in the back of the limousine.

"I saw smoke in the back of the car," she said. "There is a smoke, there is smoke... Stop the car, stop the car. I told you, there is smoke...I said, 'Open the door.' But he didn't do anything. He was on the phone."

In a separate interview, the limo driver, Orville Brown, told NBC Bay Area that at first he thought when he heard the word "smoke," he thought one of the nine women in the back of the limo wanted a cigarette. It wasn't until a short time later that he realized that smoke meant fire.

That's when he jumped into action, and started to dial 911, which was why he was on the phone. But at that point, he said, the limo was fully engulfed in flames.

Limousine Driver Described Fiery, Fatal Accident

Arrellano was part of a bachelorette party on their way to a Foster City hotel to celebrate their friend's wedding. The bride is among those who died.

Five of the nine women on board were unable to escape from the limo and died when flames and smoke spread through the rear of the passenger compartment.

Only four passengers were able to get out alive.  Three remained in the hospital Monday night suffering from smoke inhalation and burns.Arrellano, a nurse who works at the Fruitvale Health Center in Oakland, said she got out by sliding her body through the partitian in the front of the limo. She was the first one who got out safely.

She said she thought all of the women tried to get to the front of the vehicle because the flames were in the back. She wasn't sure if any of them tried to get out either of the back doors.

In three video clips posted below, Arrellano describes through tears how the events surrounding the fire unfolded.

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Gas Flarings Taking Place in Cleburne, Joshua

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Atmos Energy says three controlled natural gas flares will take place Tuesday morning at about 9 a.m.

The flarings, where natural gas is safely burned off, will take place at the following locations:

• At the site of the future Chisholm Trail Parkway Southwest of CR 904 and CR 1022 in Cleburne.
• South of CR 902 (Wildflower Road) and East of CR 1017 (Windmill Road) in Cleburne.
• Northwest of HWY 174 and CR 904 (Indian Hills Road) in Joshua.

"People in the area will notice a large, controlled flame, moderate noise and the smell of natural gas for up to approximately 24-36 hours," Atmos said in a news release Tuesday.

Once the pipeline is cleared of natural gas, workers will begin to replace sections of pipe.  Atmos said they will be replacing the pipeline in those areas as part of routine maintenance ahead of the Chisholm Trail Parkway.

Atmos said area fire departments, police departments and city officials are aware of the flaring.

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Zavala Found Safe After Amber Alert

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Amber Alert Canceled for 14-Year-Old

14-year-old Ruby Zavala was found safe Monday afternoon and the man police say abducted her is in custody, 24 hours after the search for her began.

Mount Pleasant Teen At Center of Amber Alert

An Amber Alert is issued for 14-year-old Ruby Zavala. Police say she was taken a knife-point by 23-year-old Jesus Ramirez.

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A missing 14-year-old girl was found safe Monday in a field in Winfield, and the man accused of kidnapping her is in custody.

Ruby Zavala, 14, was taken to a hospital after she was found at about 3 p.m. She sustained minor injuries and dehydration, police said.

Police are questioning Jesus Ramirez, 23, the man suspected of abducting Zavala, her mother and her sister from a Mount Pleasant church at knifepoint on Sunday afternoon.

Zavala's family said they are happy she is safe.

"I was just relieved, just relieved," said her aunt, Jessica Palacios. "You've always heard 'hope for the best but expect the worst.' I'm really glad it was for the best and not the worst -- so very, very, very relieved and happy."

Investigators believe Ramirez used Zavala's mother's truck to take the three from St. Michael's Catholic Church in the 1400 block of East First Street at about 1 p.m.

Edgar Zavala said his mother and 3-year-old sister left church services Sunday afternoon and discovered Ramirez holding Ruby Zavala at knifepoint in the parking lot. The Zavalas said Ramirez threatened his mother and sisters and ordered them into the family's truck.

"She went to church. The dude was in the truck already with my sister with her throat and a knife," he said. "She was trying to scream. She said he said, 'Shut up, or I'll kill you. I'll stab you.'"

Edgar Zavala said Ramirez later let his mother and 3-year-old sister go after catching his mother on the phone with her husband, warning him to call police.

The truck Ramirez was believed to have been driving was found wrecked and abandoned in a wooded mining area early Monday morning.

Police got a call at about 1 p.m. about a sighting in the same field where the truck was found. Using cellphone technology, police were able to track down Ramirez and Zavala.

Investigators said Ramirez surrendered and admitted to throwing the knife somewhere in the woods. Police are searching for the knife.

During the search for Ruby Zavala, police said that they did not believe she was with Ramirez willingly.

Her family told NBC 5 that the two had dated but broke it off after Zavala's mother found out about the relationship. The breakup changed the relationship into a violent obsession, Edgar Zavala said.

"He got so mad. He didn't like it, so he was begging my sister, begging my sister," he said. "She got hit by him. It hurts me like it hurts my mom. I never thought it was going to happen right here."

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell said Ramirez has a criminal record involving children.

"The suspect has already previously been charged with sexual assault of a child before," he said. "We have reason to believe he may be mentally unstable and suicidal."

Ramirez pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, in 2007. He was given deferred adjudication and spent five years on probation.

He is expected to be charged with aggravated assault and three counts of kidnapping.

NBC 5's Ray Villeda and Kevin Cokely contributed to this report.

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Fort Worth ISD Releases Parent Survey Results

Jeff Smith, NBC 5

Parents in Fort Worth Independent School District shared their opinions on a district survey.

FWISD Parents Respond to Survey

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The Fort Worth Independent School District has released the results from its annual parent survey and the recommendations from the 31-page report could shape the future of the city's schools.

Nearly 22,000 parents, a 40-percent response rate, took part in the survey -- an all-time record for the district. There were 36 questions on the survey.

Click here to see all results from the survey [PDF Link].

One out of every five parents said they're concerned about physical and verbal bullying. Bullying that occurs daily or weekly is the biggest problem at middle school campuses, according to parents.

High school parents were particularly troubled by the level of open communication between administrators and parents, especially when it came to academic performance, behavioral issues, and school happenings. More than half of all parents responded that had not heard of the "parent portal" website FWISD set up for information.

The district recently set up a smartphone app for the "parent portal," allowing parents to quickly see things like test scores and homework assignments.

There are several recommendations in the report, including improving lines of dialogue with African-American parents and making sure students feel safe in reporting bullying to teachers.

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Clash Between USC Students, LAPD Sparks Allegations of Racism

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USC Party Host Describes Police Response

Party host Nate Howard describes what happened when LAPD officers responded to a party involving USC students. Toni Guinyard reports for Today in LA on Monday April 6, 2013.

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The LAPD has launched investigations into several complaints of excessive force and racial profiling against officers involved in a weekend confrontation with mostly black and Latino students in an incident captured on YouTube.

The cases are being launched in connection with a confrontation that happened overnight Friday at a party hosted by black USC students celebrating the end of finals week.

"We will investigate those complaints vigorously," said Los Angeles Police Lt. Andy Neiman, a department spokesman. "If there is a perception that something was done out of the ordinary or a perception of biased policing, we certainly want to address those concerns right away."

Nate Howard, a USC senior, one of the party hosts, said he was handcuffed, pushed against the wall and put into the back of a squad car after he asked officers what was going on.

"There was no reason for me to be handcuffed, pushed the way I was," he said. "We were just having a good time."

Ola Bayode said as many as six officers grabbed him, threw him to the floor and cuffed him.

"Yeah, I resisted a little bit," he said. "I was just taken aback by their aggressive manner."

Michael Jackson, the vice president of student affairs at USC, said many students are upset and that the college is working with them to "ensure respectful treatment of students at peaceful social gatherings."

John Thomas, the chief of USC's Department of Public Safety, said university police were working with the LAPD to "ensure that the response of LAPD to complaints about student parties is properly calibrated."

Police were called out to the house party at 23rd and Hoover streets, seven blocks north of USC, due to complaints in the community about noise, Neiman said.

The party, which Howard said had a permit, featured a battle of DJs in the backyard.

Police broke up the party about 2 a.m., Howard said.

A YouTube video shows a line of up to 80 officers, some wearing helmets and holding batons, dispersing students in the street.

Some in the crowd threw objects at officers, Neiman said. One officer suffered an injury to his shoulder during a fight with a person who he was arresting, Neiman said.

Six people were arrested, Neiman said.

A second video captured on a cellphone showed turmoil in the backyard of the home as officers ordered people to leave.

Howard said that police had responded that night to another party hosted by white students across the street, but that the students there were ordered to stay "inside the house and stay safe" while officers responded to the party hosted by black students.

The party initially closed down and then started back up while police were shutting down the second party, Neiman said.

Both parties were shut down, Neiman said.

The incident prompted several dozen students to conduct a sit-in at Tommy Trojan at noon on Monday. A community meeting was expected to be held on Tuesday to address the incident.

 

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Farm Workers Fired for Leaving Fields During Wildfire

John Cádiz Klemack

Farm workers in Oxnard said they could not breathe during the height of the Springs Fire. Those who walked off the job during the fire were told not to come back to work, but after the United Farm Workers union stepped in, Crisalida Farm offered to rehire the workers -- all but one of whom rejected the offer. John Cádiz Klemack reports from Oxnard for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on May 6, 2013.

Farm Offers to Rehire Workers Fired...

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Strawberry Workers Fired After Leaving Work Because of Fire

As many as 15 workers in Camarillo's strawberry fields left work Thursday, concerned as the fire neared. Nine workers have now filed complaints because they were fired for not staying on the job. Kathy Vara reports from Camarillo for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on May 3, 2013.

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More than a dozen farm workers in Southern California were out of a job after walking out of the fields last week, forced indoors because of heavy smoke from a massive wildfire burning nearby.

"Oh, yeah, the smoke was very bad. That's no doubt about that," said Lauro Barrajas, of the United Farm Workers.

As the blaze, dubbed the Springs Fire, continued to grow in Camarillo May 2, farm workers 11 miles south in Oxnard said they started to feel the effects of the smoke in the strawberry fields.

The ashes were falling on top of us, one of them explained, adding "it was hard to breathe."

Air quality in the region was at dangerously poor levels and 15 workers at Crisalida Farms decided they could not handle it any longer. They left, even though their foreman warned them they would not have a job when they returned.

When they went back to the fields May 3, the farm fired them.

Barrajas, who is a representative of the UFW, said the workers contacted him for help, even though they were not members of the union.

Union representatives met with the farm's upper management and applied a union rule.

"No worker shall work under conditions where they feel his life or health is in danger," Barrajas said.

In a statement to Telemundo, the farm representative said the workers left without permission while orders still needed to be filled. The company offered to pay them for the hours they'd worked.

Later, the company settled with the union and offered to rehire all 15 workers. But only one worker returned.

The others took jobs on other farms.

One worker said while it hurts to lose work, one's health is more important.

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Slain Teen's Uncle Charged With Capital Murder

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Arrest in Murder of Greenville Teenager Alicia Moore

The uncle of a Greenville teen who went missing and was later found dead in a trunk has been charged with the 16-year-old's murder

Moore Family Closes Reward and Memorial Funds

On Monday morning, Alicia Moore's family said they were pulling the reward and memorial fund in the murdered girl's name, saying they're feeling exploited in their time of grief.

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The uncle of a Greenville teen who went missing and was later found dead in a trunk has been charged with the 16-year-old's murder.

Michael Vincent Moore, 57, was taken into custody by the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office without incident from his home in Grand Prarie and is being held in the Van Zandt County Jail.

Moore faces the charge of capital murder with a bond set at $10 million dollars.

When contacted by NBC 5 early Tuesday morning, Moore's aunt, Jessica Byrd, would not say who was arrested.

"The family is in shock," Byrd said. "We are not releasing any information at this time."

Don Jefferies, Greenville ISD Superintendent, released the following comment from the school district.

Greenville ISD was informed by the Greenville Police Department and City Manager this morning that an arrest was made overnight in connection with the Alicia Moore murder.  Needless to say, we are relieved that they have arrested a suspect.  We will continue to work with the GPD in any way we can until there is closure in this case.

Alicia Moore was last seen getting off her school bus at about 3:30 p.m. November 2, 2012. Cameras onboard the bus recorded Moore getting on at the high school and exiting at a bus stop near the corner of Bourland and Walnut streets in Greenville -- about a block from her home.

What happened to Moore after she exited the bus is a mystery.  Moore's family notified police of her disappearance that evening.

Question were raised about how police handled her disappearance after authorities initially treated the case as a potential runway.

"I've been the one trying to get the word out -- fliers and stuff," her aunt, Jessica Byrd, said in Nov. 2012. "They (police) didn't really fully get involved until Monday."

Greenville Police Chief Dan Busken said an Amber Alert was not issued because none of the circumstances related to Moore's disappearance met the criteria necessary to issue the alert -- including knowing for certain at the time that she was abducted.

"Early on, we had a very limited amount of information that we had to deal with," Busken said in 2012. "As we went throughout this weekend, we compiled more information."

Greenville Independent School District Superintendent Don Jefferies said the school learned Moore was missing on one day later.  The district attempted to trace her school-issued iPad but determined it had been reset and its tracking was disabled.

At about noon on Nov. 6, 2012, a construction worker found Moore's body in a trunk that had been dumped along Farm-to-Market 47 near a bridge railing four miles north of Wills Point.

Investigators, which include the Greenville Police Department, Texas Rangers and Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office, have remained tight-lipped about the investigation. Investigators have not released the autopsy report that explains how Moore died.

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7 Injured in FW School Bus Crash

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Seven Injured in Fort Worth School Bus Crash

Seven people have minor injuries after a school bus crash near downtown Fort Worth Tuesday morning.

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Seven people have minor injuries after a school bus crash near downtown Fort Worth Tuesday morning.

The bus collided with the rear of a small black car on westbound Interstate 30 just before the Lancaster Avenue bridge.

There were 39 people, including three adults, on board the bus at the time of the crash, MedStar confirms. The children, from Elliott Elementary School, were on a field trip, district officials said.

Two ambulances were on scene to treat the injured.  No serious injuries were reported, though seven people, six children and one person from the black car, are being transported to the hospital for observation.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

We will update this story with more information as soon as it's available.  As this story is developing, elements may change.

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Police Chief Texts Rescuers After Falling Into Well

Kaufman County Sheriff's Department

The well, covered after the rescue.

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Jimmy Council, Kemp Chief of Police, texted for help after falling into a well Tuesday morning, officials say.

Council was responding to a call about loose cattle and was helping to get them back into a pasture when he fell about 20 feet into a well along Farm-to-Market Road 2860, officials said.

At about 9:15 a.m., Allene Gilmore, the Kemp City Secretary, received a text from Council saying he needed to be rescued.

Officials arrived at the scene and, after about a half an hour, pulled Council out of the hole.  While awaiting fire-rescue personnel, deputies used a long dog leash to reach Council.

Council was taken to Kaufman Presbyterian and is doing well with only minor injuries, officials said.

Council has been the Chief of Police in the city of Kemp since Jan. 9 of this year.

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