What prompted shooting?

What prompted shooting?

DOVER, Del. — Tension between rival groups of friends from New Jersey and Washington, D.C., preceded the late-night shooting at Delaware State University that wounded two people, students said Saturday.

While investigators worked to find the shooter who opened fire early Friday as several students left a campus dining hall, a classmate recalled how the violence had escalated from altercations during the week.

“They’ve been getting into it, New Jersey people and D.C. people,” said James Dillion, 23, of Cleveland.

Nathaniel Pugh, 17, was in stable condition Saturday with an ankle wound, while Shalita Middleton, also 17, was shot in the abdomen and remained in serious condition, university officials said.

University and city police questioned two students described as persons of interest but released them Saturday. Police sought another person of interest Saturday. They had not labeled any of them a suspect, and no arrests have been made.

Campus police chief James Overton said police believe the gunman is a male Delaware State student who is no longer on campus.

Canceled storm warning

NEW ORLEANS — An hour after city officials opened shelters, warned of possible power outages and urged calm ahead of a threatening tropical depression, the system moved inland hundreds of miles away, and forecasters canceled the tropical storm warning that had authorities on alert.

Under partly cloudy, pale-blue skies Saturday, some in this city devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago wondered if it was a bit much.

“I can understand them taking precautions and all,” Gus Paschos said at a French Quarter shop. But he said the preparations and news coverage surrounding the unnamed storm system were “ridiculous.”

After the storm and levee breaches that left 80 percent of New Orleans underwater, all levels of government were criticized for their preparation and response to Katrina.

For several days this week, weather reports on local newscasts keyed on an area of low pressure that, on Friday, became Tropical Depression No. 10 — and, potentially, the region’s first major brush with tropical weather since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit in August and September 2005, respectively.

Crammed birds rescued

MEXICO CITY — Highway police seized 250 endangered parrots and 300 parakeets crammed into an SUV in northern Mexico, and arrested the driver and a passenger on suspicion of animal trafficking, authorities said Saturday.

Officers in the state of Sinaloa pulled over the vehicle and found the birds stuffed into 11 cages, the Public Safety Department said.

The Lilac-crowned parrots, native to the area, are considered threatened in some of their habitats and are protected in Mexico. The orange-fronted parakeets are not seriously endangered and their capture is allowed in some states during certain months, according to the Web site of the National Ecology Institute.

But the two men did not have permits for any of the birds, the Public Safety Department said.

The statement did not say when the traffic stop took place or give information on the birds’ condition.

Accused smuggler indicted

LOS ANGELES — A man accused of stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg has been indicted.

Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Prosecutors say James stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed in his prosthetic leg, prosecutors said.

James will be summoned to appear for his arraignment next month.

James, who was not taken into custody, could not be located.

Recordings in O.J. case

LAS VEGAS — A key witness has turned over hours of audio recordings in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping case, his lawyer said Saturday.

Tom Riccio, who had arranged the meeting between Simpson and two sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas hotel room, gave several recordings held at his Los Angeles home to police on Friday, Riccio’s attorney Ryan Okabe said. Okabe would not confirm what was on the recordings.

A television news crew videotaped police detectives carrying black plastic bags of evidence from Riccio’s home, but detectives would not discuss the investigation.

A Las Vegas police spokesman did not return a call to comment.

Associated Press