Cyclist 'recklessly' fires crossbow at house
A cyclist has opened fire with a crossbow at a house in a town on Merseyside.
A "male offender" whose face was covered attacked the house on Madryn Avenue in Kirkby on Sunday just after 09:00 BST, with arrows striking the front door and a window.
He was then seen riding off on a bicycle, Merseyside Police said.
Nobody was hurt in the incident but the force said firing the weapon in a residential street "so recklessly" could have had "far more serious consequences".
Officers are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with dashcam, CCTV, or doorbell camera footage to come forward.
They said they believed the incident was "targeted" but there was a police presence in the area to give reassurance to the community.
Det Insp Darren Hankin said: "I know residents in Kirkby will be shocked and saddened to hear that a crossbow has been used in the heart of their community.
"To fire such a weapon in a residential street so recklessly could clearly have had far more serious consequences, and we are grateful that nobody is reported to have been hurt during this incident."
He said officers were "conducting extensive enquiries to locate him, seize the weapon and bring him to justice".
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Two women injured in attack involving crossbow
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Chicago Tribune
42 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chesterton officials call for investigation, resignation of Porter County 911 director
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Porter County Commissioners President Jim Biggs said calls for Gunn to step down are ridiculous. 'This woman is, in my opinion, the best director that we have had in decades,' he said. 'She has given her life to making that dispatch center better.' The controversy that pits the towns of Chesterton and Porter against Gunn and Biggs, R-North, whose district includes the towns, is over how long it took an ambulance to be dispatched to the scene of the shootout on Gateway Boulevard in front of the Hilton Garden Inn the morning of June 18. Gunn maintains that the very existence of the 911 center is the issue. 'It's about the inefficient communication from a disparate center,' she said by phone Friday afternoon. 'The true issue is the inefficiencies of a separate dispatch center.' Two Chesterton police officers were dispatched June 18 to check on a 'suspicious' man on the hotel grounds. The officers' interaction with Joseph P. Gerber quickly escalated into an exchange of gunfire on Gateway Boulevard. Gerber, 45, of Winamac, fatally shot himself after being hit several times and a Chesterton police officer was shot. The Chesterton police officer is at home recovering. Gunn contends it took nearly five minutes for the Chesterton Police dispatcher to request an ambulance. Biggs, a short time after the shooting, cited the delay as evidence that it was time for Chesterton and Porter to disband and join the county's E911 consortium and that a local income tax needs to be raised to help pay for it. In a lengthy post on the town's Facebook page issued Thursday night, the town of Chesterton presented a detailed rebuttal. It is the second statement by the Town Council, which on June 23 heavily criticized statements from Biggs and Gunn that first appeared in the Post-Tribune. Chesterton officials stated they were releasing the statement Thursday because they wanted to quell any 'false panic' that Gunn and Biggs may have caused about the performance of the joint dispatch center. They defended the response to the June 18 incident as being 'first class.' Chief Richardson said Friday: 'We don't see any delayed response anywhere.' After the reaction from the Town Council to the Post-Tribune's June 22 story criticizing response times, Gunn and Biggs have stuck to their original remarks. 'As such, they are seemingly attempting to create undue panic among the citizens of Duneland with their baseless claims,' the statement said. Biggs has received considerable backlash with accusations he politicized the shooting or, at the very least, showed a lack of decorum in using it to push for the towns of Chesterton and Porter to join the county's E911 consortium on the very day of the tragedy. Some responding to the town's release on Facebook have even called for Biggs to resign. He, too, is unapologetic, releasing his own lengthy post on Facebook and scheduling a news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the commissioners chambers at the county administration building to go over the timeline from the day of the shooting with documentation from Gunn's office. 'I haven't been inaccurate. I haven't done any political posturing. It's an issue that has been brewing for years. I have received several complaints over the years,' he said of the current set-up in which PC E911 dispatches fire and EMS for Chesterton and Porter, but directs police calls back to the two towns, which run dispatch out of Porter. Police Chief Richardson said with Thursday's statement, the town 'wanted to take the emotion out of it and present our case with facts and evidence.' 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'Even there, even in that argument from them, that's 58 extra seconds.' The dispatcher learns that while she was on hold, according to the town's narrative, another Porter County Communications dispatcher had radioed the ambulance station for Northwest Health at East Porter Avenue and Indiana 49. A license plate reader camera records the departure from that station at 8:08:17. Chesterton Police Sgt. Jamie Copollo, who heard the 'shots fired' call, passed East Porter Avenue and Ind. 49 at 8:05:46. She arrived at Gateway Boulevard at 8:07:30, closely followed by Porter Police Sgt. Thomas Blythe and Officer Matthew Reynolds, who heard the same distress call. Copollo radioed at 8:08:13 to dispatch that fire and EMS could enter the scene because it was deemed safe. Porter Police officers Blythe and Reynolds were already administering first aid to the downed officer. The first ambulance arrived at 8:09:03, followed closely by the second ambulance. 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Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
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New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Canadian tourist Dorian Christian MacDonald, 38, found dead after ‘drowning accident' on Dominican Republic beach
A Canadian tourist was found dead in the water at a Dominican Republic resort in what loved ones described as a drowning accident last week. Dorian Christian MacDonald was last seen walking along the beaches of Puerto Plata just after 2 a.m. during his solo trip to the northern coast of the Caribbean Island on June 20, according to CTV News. MacDonald was staying at a hotel in the resort town of Maimon Bay when he went for the overnight stroll — an hour before police received calls reporting him missing. 5 Dorian MacDonald was found dead in the waters of the Dominican Republic on June 20, 2025. Tara McKenzie/Facebook The 38-year-old's body was discovered in the water during high tide just after 4 a.m., the outlet reported, citing local officials. An official cause of death wasn't announced, but a family friend reported that MacDonald had drowned. 'Dorian died suddenly in a drowning accident. He was only 38 years old. And now, the world feels a lot quieter and a whole lot less vibrant just knowing he's no longer a part of it,' Tara McKenzie wrote on a GoFundMe. 'The painful reality is now facing the unthinkable task of trying to bring him back to Nova Scotia in a timely manner—to his Mom, his sisters, his family, his people. As much as we know how much he loved DR, we need him home,' McKenzie added. The fundraiser is intended to raise money to bring MacDonald's body back to Canada. 'We don't get to even begin saying goodbye properly or grieve as we should until then,' McKenzie said. 5 MacDonald was staying at a hotel in the resort town of Maimon Bay when he went for the overnight stroll — an hour before police received calls reporting him missing. Tara McKenzie/Facebook 5 The beach of Maimon Bay in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Universal Images Group via Getty The grieving friend said it would cost $10,000 to $20,000 to get MacDonald out of the 'cold system' of red tape, paperwork, international flights, body preparation and funeral arrangements. McKenzie paid tribute to her 'brother from another,' sharing 80 photos and text messages of the two dating back to 2016. 'I didn't want to ever have to write this.. So I don't know what exactly to say yet…I'm definitely still massively in denial that a presence as infectious as yours could actually be truly gone from this world…You were a part of my life, past, present and I prayed future…' she wrote in a Facebook post. MacDonald's death is the latest involving tourists to strike the Caribbean nation's beaches. University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki disappeared while swimming during her spring break trip to Punta Cana in the early hours of March 6. The 20-year-old was with Joshua Riibe, a St. Cloud State University student, at the time. The couple had met at the beginning of the trip. Riibe, 22, was detained by authorities and questioned in Konanki's disappearance. 5 Tara McKenzie and Dorian MacDonald pose in an undated picture. Tara McKenzie/Facebook 5 McKenzie paid tribute to her 'brother from another,' sharing 80 photos and text messages of the two dating back to 2016. Tara McKenzie/Facebook The parents of the missing Washington DC native asked officials to declare their daughter dead and clear Riibe of any wrongdoing in Konanki's death, which a judge obliged with on March 30. Konanki's body has not been recovered.
