This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | May 6 — May 12
For 15 days, Jose Gonzalez Ochoa traversed the Mexican desert, his feet bleeding as he headed for the U.S. border. At the time, he was only 13 years old, and as he trudged along with his father, younger brother and a band of other immigrants, he felt he was dying of thirst and exhaustion. Now, seven years later, Ochoa — a 2016 Shaw High School graduate — is a detainee at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin after being arrested by a Harris County sheriff’s deputy on Easter Sunday.
2. Victim pronounced dead after officer-involved shooting in Phenix City
Cedric Jamal Mifflin of Columbus, who was shot during a pursuit, was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds at the Midtown Medical Center, said Russell County Coroner Arthur Sumbry Jr. Phenix City Police Chief Ray Smith said the shooting occurred around 4:52 p.m. near Ed’s Country Cooking. Smith said the officer, whose name he declined to release, will remain on leave until the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation has completed its investigation into the incident and the case has been reviewed by a grand jury.
3. Police: 19-year-old woman raped as Peachtree Mall security watched car on video
Surveillance video showed a 16-year-old raping a woman at the Peachtree Mall several minutes after he allegedly kidnapped her from the Columbus Park Crossing, according to testimony Friday. Jaquarius Ta’Ron Ellison, who was charged as an adult in the case, pleaded not guilty in Columbus Recorder’s Court to rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Officials said surveillance video from the Peachtree Mall showed the car stopping between the two buildings. They were there for 22 minutes, according to police.
4. Paratrooper killed in Iraq comes home to Fort Benning, south Georgia on Friday
A U.S. Army paratrooper killed in action last month in Iraq will arrive home to Georgia Friday morning when his body is flown into Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning. First Lt. Weston Lee, 25, of Bluffton, Ga., will be escorted home by a procession of law enforcement officers led by the Georgia State Patrol. Lee, a platoon leader, was killed April 29, in Mosul, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated during a patrol. Fort Benning officials will escort the body from the airfield to the main gate at Interstate 185.
5. Sheriff Jolley on Shaw grad facing deportation: ‘We’re not a sanctuary county’
Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley says the arrest of a former Shaw High School graduate now held at a detention center in Lumpkin boils down to simple facts. “We arrested him for speeding. He had no license, we brought him in,” Jolley said in a voice mail message to the Ledger-Enquirer. “Before he was able to make bond and get out, ICE picked him up. They had a hold on him. There’s not much more to the story than that.” Jolley made the statements Tuesday in response to a call from the Ledger-Enquirer concerning the Easter Sunday arrest of 20-year-old Jose Gonzalez Ochoa by a Harris County deputy.
This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | May 6 — May 12."