It’s Friday, September 3rd - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Police are searching for the people caught on video fleeing the scene of a deadly hit-and-run crash in Miami that took place in February.
Miami Police released video of the Feb. 13 incident that took place just after 2 a.m. near the intersection of Northwest 7th Avenue and 36th Street. According to police, a 2017 Infinity was speeding north on 7th Avenue when it collided with a 1996 Chevrolet Impala. The impact caused the Impala to split in half and eject the driver while also colliding with a 2009 Toyota Camry. The driver, 38-year-old Lester Gomez, died at the scene. A passenger was taken to Ryder Trauma Center with serious injuries but was not identified. Detectives are still working to identify the driver and others seen on video. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami Police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
No. 2 - Fifteen staff members in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District have died from COVID-19 in the past 10 days.
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Sonia Diaz, a spokesperson for several unions in the school district, confirmed the number of deaths to NBC 6. One of them was Abe Coleman, a teacher for more than 30 years. In addition to teaching, Coleman was a mentor and Site Director for the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Program, overseeing the Holmes Elementary location. Coleman taught at Holmes Elementary School in Liberty City, which is located in Miami’s Liberty City area that is predominately Black and 42% of the population are living below the poverty line, according to FIU Metropolitan Center. To hear why his passing hit close to home for those at the school and in the community, click here for the story from NBC 6 anchor Johnny Archer.
No. 3 - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appealed a judge's ruling that the governor exceeded his authority by ordering school boards not to impose strict mask requirements on students to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The governor's lawyers took their case Thursday to the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. DeSantis wants the appeals court to reverse last week's decision by Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper, which essentially gave Florida's 67 school boards the power to impose a student mask mandate without parental consent. Cooper's ruling was automatically stayed by the appeal. DeSantis said at a news conference earlier this week that he is confident the state will win on appeal by linking the mask mandate order to the Parents Bill of Rights law. That law, the governor said, reserves for parents the authority to oversee their children's education and health.
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No. 4 - Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson said the state legislature will consider whether to move forward on a bill similar to one in Texas that bans most abortions, after the Supreme Court decided not to block it.
Simpson, a Republican who has served in the state senate since 2012, said Thursday that legislators will introduce a similar measure in the upcoming legislative session. The Texas law took effect Wednesday and bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. It has unique enforcement provisions allowing private citizens, rather than state officials, to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. Democratic Florida Sen. Annette Taddeo, from Miami-Dade, called any such legislation a "rapist bill of rights."
No. 5 - The last thing Angela Gonzalez remembers is screaming for her daughter to run and grabbing her when the ground gave way in the middle of the night in their ninth-floor apartment at the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.
Gonzalez, 45, was sent hurtling down four stories, and her daughter Deven, 16, fell down five stories through a maelstrom of concrete and debris on June 24 as the 12-story, 136-unit condo tower partially collapsed. In a TODAY exclusive Thursday, the family spoke to Kerry Sanders in their first interview since their incredible survival of a collapse that killed 98 residents, including Gonzalez's husband and Deven's father, Edgar Gonzalez. Click here for the emotional interview.
No. 6 - Rapper and singer Future is coming to Miami to host a benefit concert for Haiti on Friday.
Weeks after the island nation was hit by an earthquake and then slammed with a tropical storm, the music artist announced the benefit concert on social media. The concert will start at 7 p.m. and take place at the Oasis off Northeast 24th Street and North Miami Avenue in Wynwood. Not only Future is scheduled to perform, but some of hip hop’s biggest artists will be there. For more information about the benefit concert and how to get tickets, click here.
