Watch: Bear spotted roaming streets of nation's oldest city
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A black bear was spotted roaming the streets of the nation's oldest city on Tuesday morning, prompting law enforcement to warn residents to keep an eye out for the creature.
The St. Augustine Police Department released video showing the bear scaling a wall around the historic St. George Street corridor before disappearing, likely through one of the city's many alleyways.
Many of the sightings occurred in the downtown region, a heavily visited area by tourists, which celebrates the city's founding by European explorers in 1565.
Animal specialists say the bear is not considered a threat to the community but emphasized that the sighting serves as a reminder of the season.
Bear spotted in St. Augustine, Florida on 5/6/2025
Suspected Florida Bear Attack Leaves Man, Dog Dead
This time of year, young bears begin to disperse in search of new territory, often bringing them into more urban areas.
"It's important to keep a respectful distance and never run. Black bears prefer to avoid people and will usually move on quickly," police stated.
The sighting in St. Johns County came just one day after a deadly black bear attack in Southwest Florida, where a man and his dog were killed in what officials believe is the first documented fatal bear attack in the state's history.
In response to the reported incident, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that three bears were euthanized in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area and DNA analysis will be conducted to determine if any of the animals were involved in the fatal encounter.
While wildlife officials stressed that bear attacks on humans remain extremely rare, encounters are becoming increasingly common, with populations of humans and black bears on the increase.
The state's black bear population has rebounded significantly over the last few decades and is now estimated to exceed 4,000.
According to FWC, adult male bears in Florida typically weigh between 250 and 450 pounds, while adult females range from 125 to 250 pounds.
Because of the growing population and increased sightings, the FWC is currently considering reinstating the state's annual black bear hunt, which has faced public backlash.
War Trophy From George Washington's Army Discovered Amid British Shipwreck
As for the bear spotted in downtown St. Augustine, officials believe it has since left the immediate area, but they will continue to monitor it and will set out traps, if needed, for relocation.
According to FWC officials, residents can help deter bear sightings by keeping garbage secure and keeping pet food inside.
Anyone who sees a bear in an unusual setting in Florida is encouraged to contact the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).
Original article source: Watch: Bear spotted roaming streets of nation's oldest city
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
At least two dead and three wounded in shooting at Nevada casino, police say
At least two people were fatally shot and at three others hospitalised after a shooting on Monday morning at a casino in Reno, officials told the AP news agency. The gunman who opened fire just outside the Grand Sierra Resort casino shot multiple people before being taken into custody, police said. "Officers immediately located the suspect at which time an officer involved shooting occurred," police said in a statement. "The suspect was taken into custody and transported to a local area hospital. The suspect's condition is unknown at this time. There is no known continuing threat to the public." The conditions of the victims were not immediately known either, said Reno police spokesperson Chris Johnson. Caroline Ackerman, a spokesperson for Renown Regional Medical Centre, said the hospital's emergency department received several patients with gunshot wounds. The shooting was reported around 7:30 am Monday outside in the valet area, Johnson said. More than a year ago, two men were charged with fatally shooting another man who was staying at the resort in January 2024. Reno police warned residents to stay out of the area. Multiple emergency vehicles, including several ambulances, responded outside the casino. The Grand Sierra claims to have the biggest casino floor in northern Nevada and sits just a few blocks from the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. It's also one of the tallest buildings in the city, with nearly 2,000 hotel rooms. Last year, President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in the resort's main ballroom. "My heart breaks for the victims, their families, and our entire community. Reno is strong — but we are not immune to the epidemic of gun violence gripping this nation," city council member Devon Reese said in a social media post.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New court filing in Tim Pearson lawsuit unearths decade-old sexual assault claim
New court filing in Tim Pearson lawsuit unearths decade-old sexual assault claim NEW YORK — A new court filing Friday in a lawsuit against Tim Pearson has reopened an old wound for a woman who alleged 12 years ago she was sexually assaulted in a Nassau County hotel by the former senior adviser to Mayor Eric Adams. The woman's allegation in 2013 never resulted in any charges against Pearson, and NYPD Internal Affairs records in the filing indicate a detective in Nassau County concluded the encounter amounted to 'rough' consensual sex rather than rape and suggested it involved an ugly breakup. The internal affairs probe was closed because Pearson was not an NYPD employee at the time of the accusations. But the new documents raise questions about the vetting of Pearson by Adams administration officials when the mayor appointed him in January 2022 as senior adviser, a post with broad sway over the NYPD and other city agencies. The documents containing the allegations were filed in an unrelated lawsuit against Pearson by retired NYPD Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann who alleges Pearson groped her then used his power in the NYPD to retaliate against her, NYPD Chief Miltiadis Marmara and two other cops. Lawyers for Pearson and the city have denied the claims. 'The NYPD's Internal Affairs files confirm that rape allegations against Timothy Pearson were brought to top officials and ignored,' said Ludemann's lawyer John Scola. 'The city then brought him back without a thorough background check.' The woman's name is being withheld by The News at her request out of concern for her privacy. Hugh Mo, an attorney representing Pearson, said Scola is introducing 'stale, unproven' allegations that 'unfairly tarnish Mr. Pearson's character and credibility.' 'The allegations that purport to implicate Mr. Pearson in these filings are vague, conclusory, and unsupported by evidence,' Mo said. John Flannery, the lawyer representing Pearson in the Ludemann case referred The News to City Hall. 'Tim Pearson does not work for this administration and he was not a city employee when these allegations — which were determined to be unsubstantiated by law enforcement — were reported or when they allegedly took place,' said Kayla Mamelak, an Adams spokeswoman. Mamelak did not directly address the question about Pearson's vetting. The narrative outlined in the IAB file says the woman informed then Chief of Department Philip Banks, later a deputy mayor under Adams, within weeks of the November 2013 incident. The file also indicates in May 2014, she told then Deputy Chief Rodney Harrison about the alleged assault. Harrison, then in Internal Affairs, confirmed to The News that he interviewed the woman, but was then named Staten Island Borough Deputy Chief shortly thereafter and did not know the outcome of the probe. 'I do remember her saying that Pearson did force himself on her in some form or fashion,' said Harrison, who retired in 2021 as NYPD Chief of Detectives and then served as Suffolk County Police Commissioner. 'I don't recall the act that was committed. There was definitely a part that she shared that there was a relationship with him and it turned to a point where she wanted to file a complaint.' Neither Banks, who resigned the deputy mayor post in October, nor his lawyer Ben Brafman replied to requests for comment. The Internal Affairs file indicates that since Pearson had retired, it was outside of Banks' jurisdiction and the case was closed. For her part, the woman told the Daily News she feels authorities with the NYPD and Nassau County didn't take her complaint seriously. But she is also not happy that her case has now been dragged into the public arena as part of the Ludemann litigation. 'I did not give my consent for this to be included, I wasn't asked to be in this fight,' the woman told the Daily News. 'But if the mayor had this man vetted properly, he never would have gotten the job, and none of this ever would have come out. No one came and talked to me. How did you hire this man without doing any vetting?' She disputes the summary by the Nassau detective in the Internal Affairs file. She says he told her then Nassau DA Kathleen Rice would not take the case since she did not immediately obtain a rape kit from a hospital. 'None of this stuff is my story. This is Pearson's side of the story,' she said. 'He (the Nassau sex crimes detective) said he would reach out to Pearson's lawyer. When he called me back, he said there's nothing I can do.' In a summary of her allegations filed with the notices of claim and obtained by The News, the woman alleges Pearson returned from a trip to Africa with then state Sen. Eric Adams and took her to a Nassau County hotel where he assaulted her. The woman filed complaint 1007-2013 with Nassau County Police Special Victims, records show. Nassau police did not reply to a request for comment from The News. The woman also shared with The News a March 2014 order of protection in which she detailed her allegations and claimed she was harassed by Pearson and NYPD cops. 'I was date-raped by the respondent (Pearson),' she wrote 'I filed a complaint in Nassau County on Dec. 20, 2013. I did not report it right away because I was afraid. (Pearson) used his NYPD muscle to intimidate me.' Nassau Family Court Attorney Robert LoPresti signed off on an order of protection against Pearson the same day, the document states. Pearson, who retired as an inspector, was working for Resorts World Casino when the alleged encounter took place. In January 2022, Adams appointed him to the adviser post. During his rocky tenure at City Hall, in addition to the four lawsuits, he was rebuked in an oversight report for pushing security guards at a migrant shelter then providing false information to cops in ordering the guards arrested. He resigned in September. The woman told The News she filed two notices of claims with the city in December under the name 'Jane Doe' announcing an intention to sue Pearson, Adams and Banks, but also Ludemann and Marmara for outing her – even if she is not named in their filings. The city Comptroller's office confirmed they received the claims, but declined to share the documents themselves citing state law protecting sexual assault victims. Marmara made a reference to the alleged assault in his initial lawsuit filed in June 2024. The woman's sister had just passed away when reporters began calling her after the lawsuit hit the newspapers. She declined to speak to them. 'I feel like I was used by everybody,' she said. 'When they called me I had to cancel everything and just leave town. I felt like those who were supposed to help me abandoned me.' ——— (Chris Sommerfeldt contributed to this story.) ———
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Precinct DTLA, well-known gay bar, warns it could close after former employee claims discrimination
A downtown Los Angeles bar known as a haven for the gay community is warning it could soon shutter as it faces a costly legal fight with a former employee. "We're a couple of slow weekends away from having to close our doors," owners of Precinct DTLA wrote Friday on Instagram. "Like many small businesses, we've taken hit after hit — from COVID shutdowns and ICE raids to citywide curfews and the ongoing decline of nightlife. But what we're facing now is even more devastating." Read more: The 117-year-old home of the 'original' French Dip announced it would close. Then business boomed In May, Jessica Gonzales sued the bar, its owner, manager and an employee, alleging she faced discrimination and harassment as a cisgender, heterosexual woman and was subjected to an unsafe work environment. Gonzales, who worked at the bar on Broadway for eight years, claimed that when she reported employees and patrons were having sex in the bar, its owner told her to "stop complaining." According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Gonzales was required to work the coat check for Precinct DTLA's weekly "jockstrap / underwear party" without receiving pay. She said the bar's manager eliminated the coat check fee, believing it would "incentivize more patrons to drop their pants." Gonzales claimed the environment grew so hostile she needed to bring stress balls to work. One day, her complaint said, another employee grabbed her stress ball and refused to give it back to her. In a struggle over the stress ball, Gonzales claims the employee broke two of her fingers. According to her lawsuit, Gonzales was effectively fired after the incident, in part because Precinct DTLA's owner and manager wanted to replace her with a gay male employee. "These claims are completely false," the bar's representatives wrote on Instagram. In the post, they added that the lawyer representing Gonzales "appears to have a clear anti-LGBTQ agenda." "There are multiple reports — including from individuals who previously worked with him — that he used anti-LGBTQ slurs in written emails while at his former firm," they wrote on Instagram. Read more: The Mayan, a staple of DTLA nightlife, will close its doors this fall Gonzales is represented by John Barber, court records show. The Times reported in 2023 that Barber and his colleague, Jeff Ranen, regularly denigrated Black, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Asian and gay people in emails they exchanged while partners at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith. After Barber and Ranen left to start their own firm, Lewis Brisbois released scores of the lawyer's emails, which showed the men regularly used anti-gay slurs to refer to people, The Times reported. In a joint statement at the time, Barber and Ranen said they were "ashamed" and "deeply sorry." Barber didn't immediately return a request for comment Saturday. In the Instagram post, Precinct DTLA's representatives said defending themselves from Gonzales' allegations was "draining us emotionally and financially." "Come to the bar," they wrote. "Buy a drink. Order some food. Tip the staff. Show up." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
