It’s Monday, April 4th – and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A man is in custody after police said he shot and killed his wife while she was attending her child's swimming class at a Jewish community center in Miami-Dade Sunday afternoon.
The shooting happened just after 2 p.m. in the pool area at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center on Northeast 25th Avenue. Miami-Dade Police officials said a 45-year-old man was taken into custody at the scene, and officers recovered a firearm. Cell phone footage showed the man being escorted from the scene in handcuffs. His identity was unknown. Officials with the JCC said the shooting was the result of a "domestic situation" in a message on their website. Family members were seen outside the center, and identified the victim as 30-year-old Shandell Harris.
No. 2 - More than four years after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the procedure to determine whether the gunman will receive the death penalty or life in prison is set to begin.
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Monday's beginning of the penalty phase at the Broward County courthouse will start the process of finding the 12 jurors who could recommend Nikolas Cruz be given a death sentence, which some surviving loved ones say means justice. No jurors had to be called to determine if the now 23-year-old Cruz killed 14 students and 3 staff members at Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14, 2018. Six months ago, he entered guilty pleas to 17 counts of first-degree murder. But on Monday, Judge Elizabeth Scherer will begin looking for 12 Broward residents who will give her their recommendation if Cruz should get life without parole or the death penalty. She’s summoned hundreds of Broward residents to court, a massive jury pool.
No. 3 - Airlines have canceled more than 3,500 U.S. flights this weekend and delayed thousands more, citing weather in Florida and other issues.
FlightAware, a website that tracks flights, noted major disruptions at several Florida airports, including in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando, as well as Baltimore, New York and other airports around the country. JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska Airlines, Frontier, Spirit and American Airlines were most affected, according to FlightAware, with JetBlue and Spirit canceling one-third of Sunday's scheduled flights. Local news reported storms in Florida on Saturday. Several airlines said Sunday that operations are returning to normal. The spate of cancellations arrived as air travel is rebounding from the pandemic, with strong demand for spring-break flights. People on social media complained about waiting on hold or in lines for hours to get their canceled flights rescheduled and being stranded for days.
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No. 4 - Crews spent the weekend attempting to get a brush fire that has burned thousands of acres in the Everglades in Miami-Dade and Broward counties under control.
The Florida Forest Service Everglades District said the L-30 fire has burned more than 20,500 acres and was 90% contained as of Sunday. Service rangers remained on the scene monitoring activity, but all are reported safe. The fire spread north from Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade County toward the Broward County line. It's now located near U.S. 27 and Pines Boulevard. The fire was contained in an area surrounded by water and levees and wasn’t a threat to homes or businesses.
No. 5 - Best Brand Consumers Products, Inc. issued a voluntary recall of Mickey Mouse hand sanitizer and Mandalorian hand sanitizer, the company announced Friday.
Testing by the US Food and Drug Administration found the presence of methanol in the Mickey Mouse product and benzene in The Mandalorian product. Methanol is a toxic alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide, and alternative fuel source. Substantial exposure to methanol can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, coma, seizures, permanent blindness, permanent damage to the central nervous system, or death, according to the FDA. Although all persons using the methanol-containing Mickey Mouse hand sanitizer on their hands are at risk, the FDA says that young children who accidentally ingest these products are at most risk for methanol poisoning.
No. 6 - Jonathan Huberdeau set Florida’s single-season points record, and the Panthers clinched a playoff berth with a 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
Huberdeau scored his 24th goal to extend his point streak to eight games and raise his season total to 97, one more than teammate Aleksander Barkov’s record set in 2019. Anthony Duclair scored twice as the Panthers (48-15-6) established a franchise record for victories. Winning for the seventh time in eight games, Florida closed a back-to-back trip by improving to 20-9-6 on the road. The Panthers are the first team in the league to qualify for the postseason and have reached the playoffs in a third straight season for the first time in the 28-year history of the franchise.
