- Suspects Butt Dial 9-1-1 During Alleged Burglary
 Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(FRESNO, Calif.) -- Accidentally butt dialing someone is embarrassing or inconsequential to most, but for two Fresno, Calif., men, their cell phone mishap landed them in jail.
The call, which went to 911, started like any other call to the police dispatcher, with the operator asking, “What is your emergency?”
But when no one answered, the operator didn’t hang up, instead staying on the line and listening to the pair, who police identified as Nathan Teklemariam and Carson Rinehart, both 20, as they talked about wanting to do drugs. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to breaking into a car.
“Get the bolt and give me the hammer just in case,” one of the two voices on the phone said.
Shortly after that statement, the dispatcher heard a window shatter and the people on the phone started yelling that they found prescription drugs.
As the two were driving away, police were already in the area searching for the men based on clues that the 911 dispatcher was feeding to them.
The police finally tracked the suspects down and pulled them over. The suspects acted confused and questioned what why they were being pulled over, police said.
“Oh, he’s following me, dog,” one of the suspects said in the recording. “Wow, what the [expletive] did I do?”
As they were being questioned, the suspects allegedly denied any wrongdoing, but after searching the car, police said they found items that allegedly were taken from the burglarized vehicle.
After being cuffed, the suspects were finally told how they were caught.
“This fool really called 911?” one of the suspects said. “Damn.”
“I have never heard of something like this,” Sgt. Jaime Rios of the Fresno Police Department told ABCNews.com. “There have been times where the dispatcher hears something like this, but never has a call come in before a crime being committed and staying on all the way to the end.”
Rios said the suspects are being charged with burglary, conspiracy and possession of stolen property.
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- New York City Man Killed in Anti-Gay Hate Crime
 Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- New York City police say a deadly shooting that took place in Greenwich Village Saturday was an anti-gay hate crime.
32-year-old Harlem resident Marc Carson and his companion were just blocks from the famous Stonewall Inn when a group approached them, making anti-gay slurs.
Police say that one member of the group, Elliot Morales, asked the two men if they were “gay wrestlers," and later asked “do you want to die here?"
Morales then pulled out a gun and shot Carson in the face, according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. He died in the hospital soon afterwards.
An officer arrested Morales a few blocks away from where the shooting took place.
This is the latest in a series of bias attacks on gay men in the area, and police are investigating to see if there is any connection between this incident and earlier ones.
“It's a really sad affair,” said Sean Williams, a friend of Carson.
“I mean, come on. This is 2013. Who's killing people for being gay nowadays?”
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- Police Officer’s Bullet Killed Hofstra University Student
 iStockphoto/Thinkstock(HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.) -- The Hofstra University junior killed during and armed home invasion of her off-campus house on Friday was accidently fatally shot by the responding officer, forensic investigators have concluded.
Police say Dalton Smith, a wanted man with a lengthy criminal history, was masked when he entered 21-year-old Andrea Rebello's home Friday, demanding money and valuables from Rebello and her three roommates. When police arrived, Smith used Rebello as a human shield in an attempt to escape.
“He's still got the gun to our victim's head,” Nassau County Homicide Squad Police Lieutenant John Azzata explained. “Eventually menaces our police officer, points his gun at the police officer and at that point, the police officer fires several rounds.”
The officer, a 12 year decorated veteran of this department who served more than 7 years with the NYPD, fired eight shots. Seven of them hit Smith, but the eighth bullet hit Rebello in the head. Both were killed.
The officer is currently on sick leave.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale drove to the Tarrytown, New York, home of the students' parents to tell them how she died.
"I felt obligated as a police commissioner and as a parent to inform them as soon as all the forensic results were completed," said Dale.
Now, instead of celebrating Sunday’s graduation festivities at Hofstra University, friends and classmates held a memorial for Rebello.
“It's really sad. She's a very sweet girl, she doesn't deserve this,” one student told ABC's Linzie Janis. “I really have no words for this. It is so unbelievable. I didn't think it was real.”
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- Colorado Sheriffs Suing Over Gun Control Laws
 iStockphoto(DENVER) -- Colorado’s recently approved gun control laws, passed in response to the Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., massacres, are being challenged by a delegation of sheriffs who say the laws are unconstitutional.
In March, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed off on some of the toughest gun control legislation in the country, including a law mandating universal background checks for the purchase of firearms and another restricting the size of high-capacity magazines.
A lawsuit was filed on Friday in Colorado’s U.S. District Court on behalf of 54 of the state’s sheriffs in an effort to block the laws from taking effect.
“This lawsuit is for your rights and for your safety,” Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said at a news conference on Friday.
“These bills do absolutely nothing to make Colorado a safer place to live, to work, to play or to raise a family. Instead these misguided, unconstitutional bills will have the opposite effect because they greatly restrict the right of decent, law-abiding citizens to defend themselves, their families and their homes,” he said.
All but 10 of the state’s 64 sheriffs, who are elected officials, signed their names to the lawsuit.
Tom Sullivan, who lost his son Alex Sullivan in the Aurora movie theater massacre, told ABC News’ Denver affiliate he didn’t understand the backlash to the laws.
“I do not understand why these politicians are picking guns over people,” he said, “and why they want to make it easier for criminals to get guns and for other families to go through what we did.”
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- Tennessee Man, 77, Shoots Third Hole-in-One in One Month
 Polka Dot/Thinkstock(SMYRNA, Tenn.) -- Bob Robertson is 77 years old and a faithful golfer in more ways than one.
The Tennessean plays golf four days a week and says he asked God to let him score a hole-in-one for a good cause. Robertson not only got a hole-in-one last month, he shot a hole-in-one three times in 29 days on the same hole.
He’s an Air Force veteran who had a stroke six years ago, which left him blind in one eye.
Robertson says the improbable golf shot wasn’t by chance. He planned it.
“I told God if he let me that win that money, that I’d donate that money to mission work and he let me win it,” Robertson said. “I know it might be hard to believe, but it’s true.”
Robertson’s granddaughter is studying to be a missionary and is leaving Saturday for a mission trip to Indonesia.
Robertson plays in a senior golf league at the Smyrna Golf Course every Tuesday. Two of his hole-in-one shots were during league play, making him the winner of a 0 pot to which 75 seniors contributed.
“After I got the hole in one for the prize money, one of my friends got awfully close to a hole in one, so I decided if they were going to slice up the prize money I wanted a second slice of it,” Robertson said.
He says even after a stroke and five heart-bypass surgeries, he wants to improve his golf game.
“What I’ve been trying to do is smooth out my golf swing. I was reading an article just now about how to get it right and yesterday I broke 80 for the first time since last summer,” Robertson said.
For all of the people who look to him for inspiration, “I tell them that I didn’t do it alone. Faith did it.”
The director of the Smyrna Golf Course, Hal Loflin, told ABC News that he can’t believe Robertson’s accomplishments.
“I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been a PGA pro for 23 years,” Loflin said. “I’m jealous and envious because I’ve playing since 13 and never made one.”
Loflin said Robertson is a celebrity on the golf course. The hole where Robertson has hit his multiple hole-in-one shots is a par 3 and roughly 109 yards. Robertson plays off the tee designed for older golfers.
As for another hole-in-one, Robertson says just wait and see.
“I’ve got some more coming,” he said.
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- California Key to Massive Powerball Jackpot
 Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- As the countdown ticks on to Saturday night's record Powerball drawing, the jackpot has swollen to over 0 million, largely due to California's participation in the game, lottery officials said.
In the one month since California joined the list of 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands in playing, Powerball fever has swept across the Golden State.
California, the country's most populous state, has skyrocketed to the top three states in terms of ticket sales, alongside Florida and New York, according to lottery officials.
"Once California joined the Powerball family, we helped change the dynamics to this game because of the mere size of the state and the number of players that we have," a California lottery spokesperson told ABC News.
The size of the jackpot has created a frenzy that has also driven ticket sales, according to lottery officials. The previous record for a Powerball jackpot was 7.5 million on Nov. 28, 2012.
Tickets sold at a rate of 600,000 per hour in New York on Friday, New York lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman told ABC News.
It's expected that tickets will continue to sell at a rapid rate until the 10 p.m. ET cut-off time Saturday night. The winning numbers will be drawn at 10:50 p.m. ET, perhaps minting a few new millionaires.
However, if no one matches all five numbers plus the Powerball, the jackpot will continue to balloon.
Kelly Cripe, media director for the Texas Lottery, which is one of the states in the Powerball lottery, said the next drawing would be May 22 and estimated the pot would be at least an astonishing 5 million. The frenzy of such a massive jackpot would likely push it even closer to billion.
The odds of winning the grand prize are one in 175,223,510, according to the Powerball website.
While Saturday's jackpot is a Powerball record, it's not the biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. That honor belongs to the Mega Millions, which paid out a record 6 million on March 30, 2012.
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- Plane Makes Belly Landing at Newark Airport
 ABC News(NEWARK, N.J.) -- A U.S. Airways official confirmed that a turboprop plane carrying 31 passengers and three crew members was forced to make a belly landing in Newark, N.J., early Saturday morning due to a problem with the jet's landing gear.
The jet, operated by Piedmont Airlines, left Philadelphia before 11 p.m. on Friday.
According to U.S. Airways Spokesman Davian Anderson, tower operators attempted to help the pilot troubleshoot after the plane's landing gear remained retracted. After multiple attempts, they decided to execute a belly landing.
When the pilot attempted to land the plane without the use of landing gear, sparks flew, but he managed to keep the plane steady and on the runway.
All 34 people on board were taken off the plane and bused to the terminal.
U.S. Airways believes the issue was an isolated mechanical problem. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
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- Investigation Begins in Connecticut Commuter Train Crash
 Comstock/Thinkstock(FAIRFIELD, Conn.) -- Federal transportation officials began their investigation Saturday to determine what caused two commuter trains to crash head-on in Connecticut during the Friday rush hour.
At least 70 people were injured Friday when a Metro-North train derailed and barreled straight into the path of another train headed in its direction just outside Bridgeport, Conn.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the scene Saturday morning to begin surveying the twisted rail cars that remained on the tracks.
"We'll be looking at how the crew behaved and how the crew operated the train," NTSB member Earl Weener said.
During the investigation, which is expected to last seven to 10 days, officials will also examine the braking performance of the trains and the conditions of the wheels, cars and track to see if they played a role in the crash, Weener said.
Gov. Dannel Malloy said three people remained in critical condition on Saturday, while six others also remained hospitalized for their injuries. Many of the injured suffered bruises, cuts and minor fractures and were able to be treated and released, according to officials at two area hospitals.
A Metro-North train was traveling east from New York City's Grand Central Station to New Haven, Conn., when it derailed at 6:10 p.m., Weener said.
The jolt of the impact was so strong, passengers said it caused bodies to be flung around the cars.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was among the elected officials who surveyed the damage and called the scene "absolutely staggering."
He said the injuries could have been much worse and lauded the investment in infrastructure for saving lives.
"Investment in quality of transportation is probably one of the lessons we will learn from this accident," he said.
While the wreckage remains on the tracks, transportation in the Northeast Corridor is expected to be crippled.
Two of the tracks on the line were already out of service for a project, and the remaining two tracks were damaged in the collision, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Metro-North Railroad.
Amtrak's service between New York City and Boston, which operates on the tracks where the accident occurred, was also suspended indefinitely.
Commuting could be a challenge on Monday for those around Bridgeport who rely on Metro-North to get to and from work in New York City.
Malloy said a system was being set up to move people from Bridgeport to nearby train stations.
"This is going to be with us for a number of days," he said.
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- Toddler Steals Washington Teen's Violin
 Nichola Evans/Stockbyte(MOUNT VERNON, Wash.) -- Police believe a Washington woman used her toddler to steal an antique violin from a teenager Wednesday afternoon at a local restaurant.
Mount Vernon Police Lt. Chris Cammock told ABC News that 17-year-old Kalob Tatum entered a McDonald’s with his backpack and violin after school. When he went up to the counter to order a burger, he turned around, and his 100-year-old Czechoslovakian copy of a Stradivarius violin was missing.
“When I saw the violin gone, my heart just dropped,” Tatum told ABC affiliate KOMO News. “I had this feeling that something terrible just happened.”
Tatum has been playing the violin since kindergarten, according to Lt. Cammock. The teen earned a scholarship to perform in New York this summer.
“I got a scholarship to a two-week camp and… I do not have a violin and I don’t have the money to get a new one right now,” Tatum told KOMO.
Officers searched for the violin immediately following the theft.
“On the security video that’s inside the McChevron (McDonald’s there is attached to a Chevron gas station), it showed a young girl who picked up the violin and left the restaurant with her mother,” Cammock said. “By depiction, it looks like the mother would have been aware that her daughter was taking it.”
Officers then took the footage obtained from the store and circulated the girl’s picture.
On Thursday, Cammock says an officer on patrol spotted the mother and daughter walking near a school.
“The officer stopped her, had a conversation with her and asked for the violin,” Cammock said. “The violin was then returned to the victim.”
The mother, who was not identified, faces possible charges of theft, Cammock says.
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- Dozens Hurt as Commuter Train Derails, Hits Second Train in Connecticut
 Comstock/Thinkstock(FAIRFIELD, Conn.) -- Approximately 60 people were taken to hospitals this evening – five with critical injuries – when a New York-area commuter train derailed near Fairfield, Conn., knocking a second train coming the other way off the tracks, officials said.
Amtrak train service between New York and Boston was suspended indefinitely, as was service on the Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven commuter line in Connecticut, amid an investigation, and damage to the Metro-North trains and tracks.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy estimated normal service would not resume until at least Monday.
“These tracks have been torn up,” he told reporters. “There’s been extensive damage.”
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate the crash, and was to be the lead agency in the investigation.
Local police initially put the number of injured between 20 and 25, but several hours later Malloy said 60 people had been taken to hospitals. Five of those 60 had critical injuries, he said, including one person who was considered “very critical.”
The accident occurred just east of the Fairfield metro station at approximately 6:10 p.m., when trains heading in opposite directions between New Haven, Conn., and New York’s Grand Central Terminal collided, officials said. The collision occurred after the New York-bound train derailed, knocking cars from the second train off the tracks.
Rob Oliver, a passenger on board the train that was struck, said he heard “a tremendous amount of metal and just an extremely loud sound.”
“We suddenly were screeching to a stop, but you knew it wasn’t a screech-normal stop … because there was just an awful burning smell and the cabin was filling with smoke,” he said.
He saw people being removed on stretchers with apparent neck or back injuries.
“I know some people breathed in some smoke, including myself, and I’m sure there’s people who have those sorts of [smoke] injuries,” he said. “Other people got injured coming off the train, because it’s a big jump down to the tracks and people were scrambling to get off the tracks as quickly as possible.”
Multiple reports of injuries initially prompted officials to scramble ambulances from all over the region to the site, police said.
The train cars involved were M8s, which were fairly new to the New Haven line. This was the first serious accident involving the new cars, considered state-of-the-art.
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