Chicago
Man Shot In Face Over Fireworks
Charged With First-Degree Murder

2005 --Police said a man shot and killed his neighbor Sunday outside a Chicago Heights home when the victim refused to stop lighting off fireworks.

Willie Marr, 52, was charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Willie Sallis Jr., 40. At a hearing Tuesday morning, bond was set at $1 million.

Police said Marr came outside of his home at 1906 Ashland Ave. and asked Sallis to stop, but he apparently continued lighting the fireworks. Chicago Heights police said they believe he threatened a group of neighbors, urged them to stop lighting fireworks, then returned with a shotgun.

Sallis was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

"He didn't do nothing," Alma Calicott, Sallis' aunt, said through tears. "He just wasn't that type. He was sweet -- he was coming back from the carnival."

Witnesses said the fireworks were part of an annual block party on Ashland. Marr's defense attorney said the accused man first went outside to ask that the fireworks be stopped because they were falling on his house and yard. Attorney John Lyke said that Marr went inside and came back out with a weapon, but only fired in self-defense.

"All of a sudden, a person comes out with what appears to be a gun. My client then turns, defends himself, and that's where we at right now," Lyke said. "To me, it's a clear self-defense case. We have witnesses that testify and who will testify that they, in fact, saw this person come out of the darkness, sort of like in an ambush, and my client responded in kind, which the law allows him to do."

An autopsy Monday determined Sallis died of a gunshot wound to the face, according to a representative from the medical examiner's office.

"I can understand wanting to respect your house and all that, but to kill somebody [over] fireworks makes no sense," said one man. "He said the fireworks were landing in his yard. So he came out cussing and yelling, he went back in the house. Then he came out and started shooting."

A neighbor, who declined to be identified, said that Silas had been outside with a cousin, who was lighting most of the fireworks. The cousin was not injured, he said.

Elvis Hampton, the victim's cousin, said the shooting was not justified.

"(We were) just having fun, doing stuff for the kids, and next door, in the blue house, a guy comes out with a gun and shoots somebody," Hampton said.

Police described the fireworks as "nothing out of the ordinary," comparing them to bottle rockets.

"This block party, we been doing this for about 10 years strong. Every year they sign a petition, because we got to get everybody on the block to sign the petition to do the block party," one neighbor said. "You signed a petition to do the block party, so how could you not want to participate in the block party?"

Dayton
Father, Daughter Victims Of Robbery Following Fireworks

2005 --A father and daughter found themselves face to face with a gunman after enjoying Dayton's Fourth of July fireworks over the weekend. The incident happened Sunday night in the 900 block of West Third Street.

Authorities said the man was robbed of $5 as he was getting into his car to leave the fireworks. Police said the man and his daughter were not injured.

Officers said Ken Carmen parked his van in a gated parking lot on West Third Street where he sells flowers during the day and then walked to the river for a good view of the fireworks with his daughter.

Authorities said the two were leaving the lot when two African-American males approached the two and held a gun to Carmen's head. Police said the two robbers went through Carmen's pockets and demanded money.

Carmen said becoming a crime victim in the area that he hoping to rid of the crime is not going to keep him from his goals.

As for the suspects in the robbery, Carmen was able to give a good description of the suspects. However, no arrests have been made.

 

Erie
Man dies during skydiving jump

2004 --A skydiver making a Fourth of July jump died after he slammed into a utility pole, shearing part of it off, authorities said.

Darrell Breakiron, 51, of Erie, died at about 9 p.m. yesterday at Hamot Medical Center in Erie. An hour earlier he and three other divers were caught by a gust of wind while making a jump as part of a jewelry store's annual Fourth of July celebration, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said.

Breakiron was the son of the owner of Breakiron Jewelers, which had held the jumps for the past five years as a lead-in to a nearby fireworks display at Mercyhurst College, Cook said.

Breakiron, who died from chest injuries, had done more than 2,000 jumps before the accident Sunday night, Cook said.

Witnesses said the jumper's parachute became tangled in the wires as he fell to the ground, pulling wires down with him.

"He was just coming down, and I think he was too low," Jennifer Dodsworth, who watched the accident from the front lawn of her mother's house, told the Erie Times-News newspaper. "He just hit the telephone pole and cracked it."

David Andrews, Dodsworth's uncle, said he rushed over to the fallen parachutist and tried to revive him until paramedics arrived.

St. Paul -- U.S.A.
Teen watching fireworks dies in fall from cliff

2003 -- A 16-year-old boy was killed when he fell about 200 feet from a cliff where he had gone to watch a fireworks display.    The boy, of St. Paul, was in Indian Mounds Park on Thursday night to watch a fireworks display over downtown St. Paul.     He was with a 17-year-old boy when he apparently got too near the edge of the cliff and tumbled off about 9:50 p.m., said the St. Paul Fire Department. The teenager was dead when he was found.    "The parents were there, it was a pretty bad thing,"    Indian Mounds Park, which sits on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and is east of Harriet Island, is a popular spot for watching fireworks. Thursday night's display went on as scheduled.

U.S.A.

-- Calif. -- Coroner's officials have identified a man who was killed in an accident at the California International Airshow.  The man, 33, was crushed by a flatbed truck while lying in the grass near a runway. He was attempting to videotape the fireworks and the "Wall of Fire" display.  Police said that the man may not have heard the truck because of noise from the air show or that he may have fallen asleep.

Teen Hit By Errant Bullet
During Fireworks Display

 2004 -- A Greenacres teenager was recovering Friday after being injured at the Fourth On Flagler event in downtown West Palm Beach.

A girl, 14, has been walking with a limp ever since she was shot in the leg on July 4. The girl and her mother were among the thousands of people watching the fireworks show Sunday in downtown West Palm Beach when the girl felt a sudden pain.

 "It was 10 to 20 minutes into the fireworks, and I just felt something hit me in the back of the leg," she said. "It felt like my whole leg was just vibrating down to my foot. And, I don't know, everyone just thought I was hit by a firework." But after an X-ray, doctors determined Jshe was hit by a bullet.

 "(The doctor) said probably someone shot it up in the air, not thinking it was going to come back down, ricocheted off a building or something, and found its way to her leg," .

 Doctors said the bullet barely missed her femur and made a wound about the size of a quarter.  

Clovis
Woman killed in chain-reaction crash

2003 -- A Clovis woman was killed Friday evening while sitting on a tailgate watching fireworks when she was crushed by a parked truck, according to a Clovis Police Department news release.

She was killed shortly after 9 p.m. when a parked truck she was behind was struck by a 1969 Chevrolet pickup, forcing it into another parked vehicle and crushing her.

The woman  and others were watching the community fireworks from the 500 block of West 18th Street in Clovis.

"The fireworks had just ended," said Clovis Officer Robert Denny.

She was transported to Plains Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

 

Fireman beaten at fireworks event

2005 -- A 19-year-old Forest Dale man is behind bars on charges he assaulted a volunteer firefighter directing traffic at Brandon's Fourth of July fireworks celebration.

Kevin J. Williams, who has no listed street address, pleaded innocent Tuesday in Rutland District Court to charges of aggravated assault, possession of a controlled drug and disorderly conduct. Judge Francis McCaffrey ordered Williams held on $100,000 bail.

"The investigation is continuing and the state is reserving the right to increase the number and severity of the charges as they warrant," Rutland County State's Attorney James Mongeon said in court.

The prosecutor said the injured Brandon volunteer firefighter, Steve Bilodeau, was unconscious at the scene of the assault Saturday night and was initially taken to Porter Hospital in Middlebury. He was then taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.

Bilodeau has since been released from Fletcher Allen, but will need to undergo more tests, Mongeon said in court. As a result of his injuries, the prosecutor said, Bilodeau is currently unable to work.

The incident leading to the charges against Williams took place around 10 p.m. Saturday at the town's Fourth of July fireworks celebration at Park Village, according to a police affidavit.

Brandon Police said Williams approached firefighters as they were directing traffic and began acting disorderly, swearing and yelling at them.

When they got to the scene, police said, they found Williams screaming and punching at Brandon Fire Chief Robert Kilpeck, but not landing any blows.

Police said they tried to calm Williams down, but he refused and started to run away. That's when Bilodeau got his all-terrain vehicle and to chase Williams, trying to stop him before he reached more spectators, police said.

Bilodeau was able to catch up with Williams, who punched him in the face, police said. Both men then disappeared around the side of a building.

"As I rounded the building, I saw Williams punching and kicking Bilodeau about the face and head," Detective Sgt. Laurie Krupp wrote in an affidavit. "I yelled to Williams to stop. Williams' jumped off Bilodeau and proceeded to run in a westerly direction. … Williams disappeared into the darkness."

He was taken into custody within 10 minutes by Brandon Police Officer Charles Whitehead about a half-mile away, the police affidavit stated.

Krupp wrote that, while handcuffed, Williams' mood swings were extreme, at times confronting police and other times apologizing for his actions.

"I'm sorry I ruined the Fourth for everyone," Krupp quoted Williams as saying.

Williams later told police he became angry when he tried to drive out of Park Village.

"We just wanted to slip out," Williams told police, according to the affidavit. "He (Bilodeau) wouldn't let us go. I asked him if we could get out the dirt road toward (Vermont) Tubbs, and he said, 'No.' Then he let the car behind us go."

Police asked Williams whether Bilodeau let the other car go, or if the other driver just went on his own, and Williams said he wasn't sure, the affidavit said.

"It could have happened like that, but to me, it seemed like he let them go," police quoted Williams as saying.

Police said Bilodeau was wearing clothing identifying him as a firefighter and also had on a traffic vest.

Police said they found Williams in possession of Adderall, a prescription medication that Williams said he was taking for allergies. Police said Williams had no prescription for the drug.

Williams allegedly told police he had been drinking beer earlier that night.

If convicted of all the charges, Williams faces a maximum of more than 15 years in prison.