Bizarre: Girl, 16, commits rival's murder with comb

BRITAIN: A British court jailed a 16-year-old girl for life on Tuesday for murdering a teenager with an Afro-comb during a row over boys in the street.

Rebecca Douglas, who was 15 at the time, stabbed 16-year-old Julie Sheriff in the head with the comb's pointed metal handle in south London in May 2011.

Sheriff never recovered from the swelling and bleeding the injury caused to her brain and died almost five months later.

A judge at London's Old Bailey court ordered Douglas to serve a minimum of 10 years after she was convicted of the murder last month.

Judge Nicholas Cooke told her: "Your victim died a long, lingering death some months after you attacked her."

He added that the type of comb Douglas had used to attack Sheriff "can be as effective a killing instrument as a stiletto knife. It is not a very nice thing to have in your hair."

The court heard that Douglas had taken the comb out of Sheriff's hair and tried to strike her with it in the collarbone.

When this had little effect, Douglas plunged the comb into Sheriff's skull, a witness told the court.

Prosecuting lawyer Jonathan Turner said the dispute between the pair, who met in the street by chance on the day of the attack, had been "about gossip and about boys".

Police found Douglas had sent a message from her mobile phone which said: "I see some girl that I hate, like I actually hate her with a passion, and I kind of stabbed her."

Sheriff's family moved to Britain in 2006 from Sierra Leone, where her father, Raouf, was a policeman.

He told the court in a statement: "I am left to wonder why I brought her here and if I hadn't, she would still be alive.

"The attack on my daughter was wicked, savage and senseless." (AFP)

Martial arts fighter beats his pregnant girlfriend

ALBUQUERQUE: A mixed martial arts fighter who police say beat his pregnant girlfriend so badly she later miscarried has turned himself to  authorities.

Willie “Slick” Parks, of Albuquerque, faces aggravated assault charges and was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail after he was taken into custody by US Marshals.

According to a criminal complaint released Sunday, the 28-year-old’s girlfriend told police that she blacked out during the beating and Parks didn’t allow her to go to the doctor for days. The complaint says she suffered a broken nose, concussion and a miscarriage.

Police say Parks beat her after an argument over clothes she was wearing.

It was unclear if Parks at an attorney.

Parks is a MMA welterweight who has fought in El Paso, Texas, and Las Vegas.

Man calls 911 for sex

DOVER: A Hillsborough County man is accused of calling 911 to ask for female deputies to respond to his home for sexual gratification.
 
Jail records show Joshua Basso was arrested Friday on seven counts of making false 911 calls. The 31-year-old from Dover is being held on $3,500 bail. An attorney is not listed for him.
 
A sheriff's office report says Basso admitted to deputies that he made the seven calls to 911 between Wednesday and Friday. He was arrested without incident.
 
Jail records also show Basso was arrested in March 2011 on charges of stalking and lewd and lascivious behavior. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors. (AP)

Teen student shot on first day of school

MARYLAND: A student was shot and critically wounded on the first day of classes at a Baltimore County high school Monday and police said a suspect was quickly taken into custody.
 
County police said the wounded Perry Hall High School student was flown to a hospital. The 17-year-old male student was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
 
No one else was reported injured.
 
A male suspect was taken into custody after the shooting, police said. The suspect is a student, but police did not say where he attended school.
 
The school was evacuated, and students were being escorted to a nearby shopping center and middle school.
 
WJZ-TV showed video of a shirtless male with his hands behind his back being put into a police cruiser.
 
Perry Hall is a middle-class community along the Interstate 95 corridor, northeast of Baltimore city. The school is the largest in the county, with 2,200 students.
 
County Councilman David Marks, who lives next door to the school, said he had received dozens of phone calls and text messages from worried parents and residents.
 
"This is a very comfortable, very safe community, and it's an excellent high school," said Marks, who graduated from Perry Hall. "I think this is an aberration, but clearly one that is horrifying, particularly on the first day of school."
 
Television coverage showed scores of police cars surrounding the school and parked on neighborhood streets. A group of officers with weapons drawn staked out a corner of the building, one of them lying prone on the ground and appearing to cover a particular area of the campus. Hundreds of students streamed away from the school toward a nearby shopping center where they met their parents.
 
Two students who spoke with WBAL-TV described hearing a popping sound in the cafeteria and initially thinking someone was playing a prank. One student said she then saw the shooter with a gun near the vending machines and that a guidance counselor then got the suspect up against the machines and got the gun away from him. The students described some people running from the cafeteria, while others ducked under tables. (AP)

Woman who rescued animals killed in dog attack

US: Police outside Atlanta say a college student who took in abandoned animals was attacked and killed by a dog.
 
DeKalb County police tell The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 23-year-old Rebecca Carey was killed at her Decatur home sometime over the weekend.
 
Authorities say Carey had five dogs living with her at the time of her death. They included a pit bull she had owned for six years. Other dogs included a boxer mix she had taken in and a Presa, a large Spanish breed. Authorities say she was also dogsitting another Presa for a friend.
 
The friend discovered her body Sunday afternoon after Carey failed to show up for work at Alpharetta's Loving Hands Animal Clinic.
 
DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish says all of the dogs were euthanized Wednesday. (AP)

Bride attacked by pit bull at wedding

US: A bride is recovering from injuries after she was attacked by a pit bull mix and its owner at her wedding reception.
 
Brittany Cortez says the alleged attacker, Joel Nevarez, is a troubled childhood friend who was invited to her reception at a Denver home.

She told KMGH-TV that he let the dog drag her around "like a rag doll" and punched her in the face and head with brass knuckles at the party early Sunday.
 
Cortez thinks the attack was motivated by jealousy.
 
Nevarez is wanted for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police think he may have fled to Mexico, where his mother lives.
 
The dog has been seized and is being held on a 10-day quarantine at the city's animal shelter. (AP)

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