It’s Thursday, August 25th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A Miami-Dade Police detective killed in the line of duty was remembered as a hard-working and brave member of the department at an emotional funeral service Wednesday.
Hundreds of fellow officers, local leaders and members of the public joined family members for the memorial service for Det. Cesar "Echy" Echaverry at loanDepot park, the home of the Miami Marlins. Before the memorial service, hundreds of officers from several law enforcement agencies lined the roads for a solemn procession to carry Echaverry's body from the funeral home to the ballpark. After the service, the procession made its way to Miami Executive Airport, where several agencies took park in a flyover before Echaverry's body was loaded on a plane to Nicaragua, where he will be buried.
No. 2 - A psychologist who treated Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz when he was 8 years old testified Wednesday that Cruz was a “peculiar child” who had many behavioral and developmental issues but his widowed mother seemed overwhelmed and wasn’t consistent in her discipline or in getting him treatment.
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Frederick Kravitz said he began treating Cruz in 2007 on a referral from Cruz's psychiatrist with Lynda Cruz telling him her adopted son suffered from anxiety and nervousness and had trouble controlling his temper. But she also said he was friendly and got along fine with his peers — claims that a neighbor, preschool teachers and an elementary school special education counselor have testified were not true. Kravitz said that while he suggested weekly sessions for Cruz, his mother only brought him 15 times over a 13-month span, a decade before he murdered 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.
No. 3 - A Hollywood police officer on trial for allegedly slapping and choking a combative drug suspect took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday.
Matthew Joseph Barbieri testified he and a partner answered a 911 dispatch to a familiar Cleveland Street address about 10 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2019. Barbieri had encountered suspect Raymond Schachner Jr. before and the dispatcher said Schachner’s father had called for help because Schachner was high on heroin and acting erratically. "You could hear screaming coming from the rear house," said Barbieri, upon his arrival. The arrest was recorded on security camera video and Barbieri explained his actions as the video was played in Judge Kenneth Gottlieb’s Broward County courtroom.
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No. 4 - Hundreds of bogus claims that sought a share of the $1.1 billion settlement in the deadly collapse of a Surfside condominium building were ruled as fraudulent and invalid by a judge Wednesday.
More than 450 presumably false claims, most seeking about $50,000, were filed in the court settlement arising from the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in which 98 people died. These claims “have no connection whatsoever” to the tragedy and appear to be “claims seeking to wrongfully capitalize on this tragedy at the expense of the true victims,” court-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg said in court documents. During a brief hearing Wednesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said none of the bogus claimants showed up to provide evidence under oath so their claims will be struck from the list of settlement beneficiaries.
No. 5 - Change is definitely in the air for our local school boards.
In Miami-Dade, two candidates endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis won, and one of them ousted a veteran incumbent from her seat. In Broward, one incumbent is now in a runoff, as everyone wonders whether the governor will do what the statewide grand jury recommended and remove four sitting board members from their seats. The grand jury report hangs like a black cloud over the board. Did it have an impact on incumbent Donna Korn's contest going to a runoff election? She doesn’t think so. Click here to find out why in a report from NBC 6’s Ari Odzer.
No. 6 - Homestead became a field of destruction following Hurricane Andrew — 30 years later, it's now a city rebuilt.
“It was just a sense of disbelief to comprehend the scope and scale of what happened,” said Homestead Mayor Steve Losner. He was there — and so was Barbara Lola Cesar, who at five years old protected herself under a mattress. “I remember getting scared. I remember seeing the panic in my mother and my aunt's eyes,” Cesar said. To mark the 30th year since Andrew, the Homestead Cybrarium — a library that incorporates technology — will hold a virtual reality exhibit to tell the story of what took place. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Cristian Benavides.
