Man arrested for animal cruelty after dog found tied to post in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton
Florida Highway Patrol
(TAMPA, FL) — The former owner of a dog that was left tied to a post off a Florida highway in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall has been arrested for animal cruelty, officials announced Tuesday.
The dog was found up to its chest in floodwaters off Interstate 75 in Tampa on Oct. 9, as many residents were evacuating due to Milton, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
A state trooper rescued the dog, now known as Trooper, the department said. Florida Highway Patrol shared a video on social media last week of the dog tied to the post with the caption, “Do NOT do this to your pets please…”
The former owner of the dog — identified by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Florida — was arrested on Monday for aggravated animal cruelty, a felony.
State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whose office is prosecuting the case, also announced the arrest on Tuesday, saying, “We take this crime very seriously and this defendant will face the consequences of his actions.”
Aldama Garcia was released Tuesday on $2,500 cash bond, according to online jail records. ABC News’ attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Online court records do not list any attorney information.
(CUMBERLAND, Md.) — A 28-year-old prison inmate has been killed in his own cell by another prisoner who was serving time in the same facility, police said.
The inmate, identified as Robert Warren — a state prison inmate serving time at the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland., Maryland — was declared deceased in his cell on Monday by emergency medical service personnel, according to a statement from the Maryland State Police released on Wednesday.
A suspect, also an inmate, has been identified but police have not released his identity since he has not yet been charged at this time. Authorities are expected to release more information once the suspect has been charged, police said.
Maryland authorities did not say how the man was killed or how long they suspect he had been dead for when his body was discovered in his cell but they did confirm that Maryland State Police investigators are “continuing an investigation into the death of a state prison inmate in Allegany County.”
“The Maryland State Police Homicide Unit was contacted by investigators from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigative Unit (DPSCS IID) about an inmate death,” according to the Maryland State Police. “Autopsy results from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Warren’s death as a homicide.”
State Police Homicide Unit investigators are continuing the investigation and assistance is being provided by State Police crime scene technicians and investigators with the DPSCS Internal Investigative Unit.
“Upon completion, the investigation will be presented to the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office for review regarding charges,” police said.
(ST.PETERSBURG, Fla.) — As Hurricane Milton pummeled the St. Petersburg area, with winds strong enough to shred the roof of Tropicana Field, Kristy Austin said it sounded like a “freight train” was coming through her apartment building.
“It sounded like the ocean was hitting our windows and the water was just pouring through,” Austin, who lives across the street from the stadium, told ABC News on Thursday.
Water was coming in the windows of her eighth-floor apartment, going up to almost her knees, Austin said, while the wind also howled.
“We thought the windows were going to blow and might cut us and kill us,” she said.
Austin said she and her best friend grabbed blankets and emergency bags with their birth certificates and ended up sheltering in the windowless stairwell on the 14th floor of their building all night.
“It still sounded like a freight train coming through the building,” she said. “And the whistling of the storm, it was really scary.”
The St. Petersburg area saw gusts up to 102 miles an hour during Hurricane Milton. More than 18 inches of rain also fell.
The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, lay in tatters Thursday, most of it completely ripped off during the high winds. The roof was built to withstand 115 mph winds, according to the Tampa Bay Rays media guide.
No one was injured as the stadium roof was torn off during the storm, officials said. The Tampa Bay Rays said Thursday they are working with authorities to secure the building.
“We are devastated by the damage incurred by so many,” the team said.
Ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival, Tropicana Field was set up to serve as a base camp for operations and 10,000 first responders. However, in a press conference Thursday morning, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed they were moved out of Tropicana as the forecast changed.
“As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana,” DeSantis said.
Pinellas County had no no running water in the immediate aftermath of Milton after several water main breaks overnight, officials said. By Thursday afternoon, officials said potable water service was back but that pressure may be low.
As St. Petersburg cleans up from the powerful storm, Steven Kauvaris, who lives near Tropicana Field, wanted to see the devastation firsthand.
“That was honestly just pretty impressive,” Kauvaris told ABC News near the stadium Thursday morning. “It’s definitely impressive to see the kind of damage that this storm created.”
Austin said she decided not to evacuate because her building is secure and on the hospital grid, so she didn’t lose electricity. Between the damage to Tropicana Field and the flooding in her apartment, she said she’s never seen anything like Milton.
“It was horrifying,” she said. “We weren’t sure if we were going to make it out alive.”
(NEW YORK) — A Turkish Airlines flight diverted to New York on Wednesday morning after one of its pilots died.
Flight 204 was traveling from Seattle to Istanbul when it was diverted to John F. Kennedy International Airport for an emergency landing at approximately 6 a.m. after “one of the pilots suffered a medical emergency,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Capt. İlçehin Pehlivan “lost consciousness” during the flight, and after initial medical intervention proved ineffective, the co-pilot was rerouted to JFK, where the Airbus A350 safely landed, the airline said in a statement.
Turkish Airlines also confirmed that Pehlivan died before the plane touched ground. Since it was a long-haul international flight, two other pilots were on board at the time.
Upon landing, the aircraft was met by emergency personnel, according to airport authorities.
Pehlivan, 59, had been working for Turkish Airlines since 2009. His last routine health check was performed on March 8, 2024, and no health issues were detected that would have prevented him from carrying out his duties as a pilot, according to the airline.
Yahya Üstün, senior vice president of media relations at Turkish Airlines, expressed his condolences in a post on X, saying, “We deeply feel the loss of our captain and extend our sincerest condolences to his bereaved family, colleagues, and all his loved ones.”
The airline said it is making arrangements to rebook the affected passengers on new flights from New York.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the diverted aircraft as an Airbus A320. It was an Airbus A350.
