Pastor among 3 dead in Fla. shooting

Pastor among 3 dead in Fla. shooting

BRADENTON, Fla.

A Florida man killed his wife and another woman Thursday, then headed to the church where his wife worked and fatally shot the pastor, authorities said.

Police were searching for Andres “Andy” Avalos, 33. The Manatee County sheriff’s office said he killed James “Tripp” Battle, 31, at the Bayshore Baptist Church. A witness to the shooting told deputies at the scene about the other two victims, said sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow.

“We don’t know exactly what transpired,” Bristow said.

Investigators went to the house and found the bodies of 33-year-old Amber Avalos and the other woman whose name hasn’t been released because her relatives haven’t been notified. Amber Avalos worked at the church as its nursery and children’s director. The Avaloses have six children and Bristow said they are in the custody of a relative.

He said it has not been determined how the women died but that detectives think they were killed first at the home.

Crews break up homeless camp

SAN JOSE, Calif.

About 50 muddy souls dragged their meager belongings out of a trash-strewn California creek bed Thursday as police and social-service workers began clearing away one of the nation’s largest homeless encampments, a collection of flimsy tents and plywood shelters in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The people forced out of the camp known as the Jungle ended up alongside a busy San Jose road, startling passers-by who slowed down to watch.

“People drive by and look at us like we’re circus animals,” said a sobbing Nancy Ortega.

More than 30 police officers and dozens of construction workers in white hazmat suits joined about 15 social-service workers in the effort to take apart the treacherous community that at its peak housed as many as 350 people living in squalor just a short drive from tech giants Google, Apple, Yahoo and eBay.

Philippines brace for erratic typhoon

MANILA, Philippines

A wide swath of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, braced Friday for a dangerously erratic and powerful typhoon approaching from the Pacific, about a year after the country was lashed by Typhoon Haiyan that left more than 7,300 people dead.

Typhoon Hagupit — Filipino for “smash” — strengthened overnight with its sustained winds intensifying to 134 miles per hour and gusts of 155 mph. The local weather agency PAGASA’s forecasts show the typhoon may hit Eastern Samar province late Saturday or early Sunday.

But a forecast by the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii said Hagupit may veer northward after making landfall and possibly threaten Manila, which has population of more than 12 million people.

Flash floods strand drivers in Calif.

LOS ANGELES

Heavy downpours took a parting shot Thursday at California, triggering flash floods that temporarily stranded more than three dozen people in their cars in inland Riverside County as the state took stock of the effects of days of steady downpours.

The stranded drivers and city employees in San Jacinto Valley spent the day digging their cars out of mud and cleaning up after the deluge. No one was injured.

The Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County, closed since an earlier weekend storm sent mud and rocks into the roadway, was open again by late afternoon.

Associated Press