NEWS & BLUES

Curses, Foiled Again

After Domonique J. Loggins, 21, punched his 20-year-old girlfriend in the face during an argument while she was driving, the woman parked at a police station in suburban Joliet, Ill., and went inside to report the incident. When officers came outside, Loggins fled. He ran across a bridge and into a park, where, according to Deputy Chief Mike Trafton, “about 60 squad cars were parked.” Thirty Joliet cops and officers from other departments were in the park for a training session on “being prepared for any situation.” Loggins was quickly captured. After being handcuffed, he took off again, only to be recaptured by a police commander returning to the training session from lunch. (Chicago’s WLS Radio) When a man wearing a jacket hood over his face entered a bank in Columbus, Ohio, a bank employee informed him of the bank’s “no hats, no hoods” policy. Apparently hoping to avoid attracting attention, the man lowered the hood, according to FBI Special Agent Harry W. Trombitas, but then robbed the bank. Because his hood was down, however, surveillance cameras got a clear picture of his face. (The Columbus Dispatch)

When Guns Are Outlawed

After buying a can of beer from a gas station in Burton, Mich., a 45-yearold man was walking home when an unknown man pulled a knife on him and demanded money. The victim responded by swinging the bag containing the beer  and hitting the attacker in the side of the head. The suspect ran off. (The Flint Journal) After Joshua Monson, 27, stabbed his attorney in the neck with a pencil during a court hearing in Snohomish County, Wash., he got a new attorney, whom he promptly stabbed in the neck with a pencil. (Seattle’s KIRO-TV)

Slightest Provocation

James Dillard, 40, a barber in Trenton, N.J., bit the ear of a 24-year-old customer nearly in half after he complained Dillard was taking too long to cut his hair. (Trenton’s The Times) Police arrested Joseph Hayes, 48, in South Memphis, Tenn., after he threatened the host of a child’s birthday party with a gun because his children didn’t get any cake or ice cream. According to a police affidavit, Hayes yelled at the victim, “Y’all didn’t save my kids no damn ice cream and cake,” then left the party but returned with a small handgun, which he showed to the victim. “I ain’t scared to go to jail,” he told her. “Just take care of my kids.” (Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal) When a 33-year-old man showed up at his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s apartment in Hoquiam, Wash., carrying a dead animal and looking for his girlfriend, the ex asked the man why he was carrying a weasel. He told police the man replied, “It’s not a weasel, it’s a marten,” then punched him in the nose and fled. Explaining that the dead animal was actually a mink, police Chief Jeff Myers said the attacker was later arrested. (Associated Press) Dechko Ivanov, 37, who posed as a living statue called the “Invisible King” in London, attacked rival street performer Rumen Nedelchev, 45, known as the living statue “Silver Wizard,” while Nedelchev was posing for tourists. According to testimony at Inner London Crown Court, Ivanov used a concrete block wrapped in a bag to bash his fellow Bulgarian and housemate “within a whisker” of death because Nedelchev had beaten him to a prime spot and stolen his audience. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Unintentional Body Piercings

After Andrew Linn, 28, fell asleep at the wheel in Las Vegas, his car crashed into a chain-link fence, forcing a metal pole through the windshield and his mouth. Emergency responders found Linn conscious and trying to use his cellphone.

Dr. Jay Coates, who performed surgery to remove the 2-inch-round pole, said if it had struck Linn a few centimeters in either direction, he would have bled to death. Once the pipe was removed, Linn was left with scars, missing teeth and a destroyed palate. “The hardest thing has been opening the mouth and learning how to eat and swallow,” he said. “Drinking is really difficult.” (Las Vegas’s KSNV-TV) When New Zealand truck driver Steven McCormack, 48, slipped and fell from his vehicle, he broke a hose from an air reservoir that powers the truck’s brakes and landed on its brass fitting, which pierced his left buttock and pumped air into his body. “I was blowing up like a football,” McCormack said after his co-workers released a safety valve to stop the airflow. Doctors who treated him said the air had separated fat from muscle in his body. McCormack remarked his skin felt “like a pork roast” — crackling on the outside but soft underneath. (Reuters)

News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To contribute, submit original clippings, citing date and source, to Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.