Northwest Florida Daily News: Recent Episodes
Gannett
A collection of interviews, news actualities and press conferences from the Northwest Florida Daily News.
A Freeport man has been charged with felony animal cruelty after multiple witnesses said he was repeatedly hitting and throwing his dog, according to a press release from the Walton County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies were called to the area of 1 Jefferson Street in Freeport on Oct. 20, after 911 calls we received about a man abusing a dog. When deputies arrived, they saw a tan dog running northbound near Jefferson Street.
The dog appeared to be scared and in pain, WCSO said.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating two fatal wrecks that occurred within minutes of one another in Walton County on Tuesday evening.
In one of the wrecks, a hit-and-run which killed a bicyclist riding along U.S. Highway 98 about 7 p.m., the FHP is seeking the public's help to identify the vehicle and the driver that struck the bicyclist.
The National Hurricane Center considers a major hurricane as a Category 3 storm or higher. A Category 3 storm has winds between 111 and 129 mph.
A Category 4 storm has winds between 130 and 156 mph.
Fort Walton Beach remains east of the current projected path
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a home invasion robbery that took place early Tuesday morning at a home in Holt.
The victim went outside his residence on Belgium Run around 5 a.m. to investigate a noise and was confronted by an armed man wearing a blue mask, baseball hat, black hoodie, blue jeans and white shoes, according to a press release from the Sheriff's Office.
A Valparaiso woman who worked for a local law firm for about 10 ten years has been arrested on charges she stole more than $700,000 from her former employer.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrested 51-year-old Janice Porter Sept. 23, for fraud of more than $50,000 as well as three counts of money laundering, according to a press release from the Sheriff's Office.
A 21-year-old man is dead and his 19-year-old friend is charged with manslaughter after the suspect said they were playing around with an AK-47 and he pulled the trigger thinking it was unloaded, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.
Matthew Gunn, of 1650 U.S. Highway 98 in Florosa, was arrested Tuesday morning by the Sheriff’s Office.
A South Walton restaurant temporarily closed last Friday after a complaint inspection performed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
In a since deleted post, Fubar Pizza Bar in Fort Walton Beach announced Thursday night on its Facebook page it would no longer show any NBA, NFL, MLS and MLB games.
The number of reported positive coronavirus cases continued to be significantly lower in this region Sunday than in previous weeks and the state of Florida logged its lowest number of positive cases in two months, according to reports.
Florida Department of Health officials reported 2,678 new cases statewide. Okaloosa and Santa Rosa each documented 14 new cases Sunday while Walton County reported five new cases and Bay County 15.
Neyland Schmidt, 7, of Fort Walton Beach, will be sitting in the stands, via a cardboard cutout of his photo, at all the home Atlanta Braves baseball games at Truist Park starting Aug. 17. Neyland is the oldest of four sons to David and Shannon Schmidt.
Efforts to resuscitate a toddler found floating facedown in a family pool Wednesday were unsuccessful. The 2-year-old apparently drowned in his family’s pool on Brown Place in Crestview. A parent working at his home there told Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputies he was not aware his children had gone into the backyard. An older sibling came in to tell the parent that the toddler was in the pool, according to a press release. The parent immediately began CPR. Deputies and first responders continued to try to revive the child, but could not. The incident is under investigation by the OCSO.
SHALIMAR — With a 4-0 vote, the Okaloosa County Commission today approved an ordinance directing all businesses countywide to post signs on their entry doors stating who if anyone needs to wear a mask while inside each business establishment.The emergency ordinance is expected to take effect in about 10 days, or once the Florida Department of State finalizes it, and will remain in place until Oct. 1. While the ordinance applies to businesses in both the unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county, municipalities have the option to opt out of the ordinance.Commissioner Graham Fountain did not attend today’s meeting.
The search for a scuba diver who went missing late Sunday morning while diving from a 26-foot catamaran in the Gulf of Mexico about three miles south of Grayton Beach was shifting from a rescue operation to a recovery operation on Monday afternoon, according to Corey Dobridnia, public information officer with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
There were 28 more deaths reported, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 3,447. The state Department of Health reported that 14,354 coronavirus patients are presently under hospital care.
Jennifer Hunt has been experiencing homelessness since 2017. She says selfishness, pride and addiction lead her to her current living situation.
Okaloosa County has reached the dubious milestone of 500 diagnosed COVID-19 cases and Health Department Director Dr. Karen Chapman warned local leaders Thursday that the county is facing a critical situation.
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A call to remove the Confederate Flag that has flown at the Walton County Courthouse since the Civil Rights era was rejected Tuesday by the county commission in a 3-2 vote. Commissioners Danny Glidewell, Trey Nick and Melanie Nipper voted against a proposal to retire the flag. The motion was put forward by Commission Chairman Bill Chapman and followed pleas from several residents who said they see the flag as emblematic of past and present racism.
The state of Florida crossed a new coronavirus threshold between Wednesday and Thursday when the state recorded more than 3,000 new cases in a single day for the first time. Florida Department of Health officials reported 3,207 new cases of the deadly virus Thursday. That’s a new single day high, up from 2,610 the day before and 2,783 new cases reported Tuesday.The number hospitalized across the state jumped by 188 to 12,577. Hospitalization rates in Northwest Florida remained low, with Okaloosa County reporting just five hospitalized Wednesday with two in ICU and none on ventilators. Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties both saw big jumps in the number of residents testing positive between Wednesday and Thursday. Okaloosa County recorded 15 new cases and Santa Rosa 14, according to numbers provided by the Department of Health.Walton County reported only one new COVID-19 case Thursday, but the victim was a 6-month-old child.Total cases in the state have now reached 85,926 and the death toll climbed by 43 overnight to 3,061.
Tropical Depression 3 formed Monday afternoon, the first day of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. The depression is expected to become the third named storm of the young season: Cristobal.
When the coronavirus scare has ended and Big Kahuna’s Water & Adventure Park is allowed to reopen, it will do so under new ownership.Apex Parks Group which purchased the park in 2014, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and intends to sell the property. An auction originally scheduled for Friday has been moved to Monday, according to Laura Davis Jones, an attorney whose firm is conducting the auction. Bidding gets underway at 11 a.m. Eastern time in Delaware.Apex Parks Group “is pursuing a comprehensive financial restructuring aimed at reducing the company’s current debt and, ultimately, enhancing operations to continue to serve guests and communities for years to come,” a company news release said.Its intention is to sell to APX Acquisition Company LLC, which held much of the Apex Parks Group debt prior to its filing for bankruptcy in April.“The lenders will ... provide financing to support the company during the restructuring,” the release said.
As firefighters continued to work Friday to fully contain the Mussett Bayou wildfire that scorched nearly 600 acres and destroyed nearly 40 homes, focus was shifting toward efforts to help the residents displaced by the blaze.As of early Friday morning, the Florida Forest Service reported that the fire was 75% contained, with little fire activity observed during the night.In the meantime, to help ensure that donations to those rebuilding their lives in the wake of the blaze will match their needs, Walton County Emergency Management personnel have been working to contact victims of the fire directly to ask about those needs, according to Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson.