School shooting, Gayle Manchin, Mr. Football: Down in Alabama
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Gunplay at school
A 16-year-old girl was charged in the shooting of two other students at LeFlore High School yesterday, reports AL.com’s John Sharp.
Neither victim had life-threatening injuries.
According to police, the girl was in an argument with a 15-year-old boy, pulled a gun and fired, superficially wounding the boy as well as another teen boy.
The girl is charged with two counts of assault first degree, possession of a deadly weapon on school grounds and discharging a firearm into a school building.
A rough visit
Gayle Manchin, the wife of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, was hospitalized Tuesday in Birmingham after a vehicle she was in was hit by a suspect running from the law, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.
Sen. Manchin said his wife was in stable condition.
She was in Birmingham to attend an event as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. She landed at Shuttlesworth and was being driven to a hotel when the crash happened.
Homewood Police said their officers had been in pursuit of a man with outstanding warrants. The chase had been going on for around seven minutes, through Homewood and Birmingham.
RIP Moyo the Rhino
One of the two eastern black rhinoceroses at the Birmingham Zoo has died, reports AL.com’s Joseph D. Bryant.
The 6-year-old named Moyo underwent a standard dental procedure and semen collection on Thursday and never was able to recover after the anesthesia wore off. He was put down Friday night.
Part of the procedure was to do a reproductive assessment for possible future artificial insemination. The eastern black rhino is considered a critically endangered species.
Still the one
The Alabama Sports Writers Association’s rescheduled Player of the Year Banquet was held last night in Montgomery, and the big honoree was a familiar face.
AL.com’s Ben Thomas reports that Saraland wide receiver Ryan Williams became the first player, in 42 years of the award, to be named Alabama’s Mr. Football two years in a row.
He’s scored four touchdowns in each of the past two Class 6A state title games for Saraland.
Even though he played as a junior this season, there won’t be a three-peat next year. Williams has reclassified academically to a senior. The last time we mentioned his name here was when he decommitted from the University of Alabama following news of Nick Saban’s retirement. But he has since re-committed to the Tide and will sign next week and then report this summer after finishing high school requirements.
WWII vet’s honor
Arkema has renamed one of its buildings at its Axis, Ala., plant after former employee and World War II soldier Robert Curtis Andry, reports AL.com’s Lawrence Specker.
Andry, who’s now 98 years old, is from north of Mobile. He fought with the 761st Tank Battalion serving under Gen. George Patton. That was the all-Black unit known as the Black Panthers.
Cpl. Andry was injured in battle in France in November 1944 when a shell hit his tank. He has told the story before that he was given morphine, bandaged up and buried to the neck in a trench to keep him concealed and protected as he waited on medics to dig him up and get him to a field hospital.
Arkema held a ceremony with a plaque unveiling yesterday in front of the R. Curtis Andry Support Center.
Quoting
“I don’t think I was struggling from a mental standpoint, it was a matter of it just happened. I can’t really explain what was going on and what went into it.”
Former Alabama center Seth McLaughlin, on the snapping issues during the Rose Bowl.
By the numbers
2.2 million
That’s how many square feet of manufacturing space was purchased by a company out of Florida to create an aerospace hub in the Shoals area. AE Industrial Partners, through affiliate Rocket Shoals, bought a facility in Cherokee from the Retirement Systems of Alabama for $190 million.
More Alabama news
Born on this date
In 1902, actress Tallulah Bankhead of Huntsville.
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