The shark is caught!

The giant killer shark responsible for the two recent deaths of Amity locals was finally caught and killed on the eve of the Fourth of July by a group of fisherman. They will receive a $3,000 reward for their heroic and selfless efforts.

After the shark was brought ashore it was inspected by Matt Hooper, a marine biologist from the Woods Hole, Mass., Oceanographic Institute, and one of the world’s foremost experts on sharks, as a Tiger shark.

 Tiger sharks are among the most brutal and dangerous of all sharks and have been responsible for hundreds of swimmers’ deaths along the East Coast of the United States.

Beaches will reopen immediately just in time for the flood of visitors for the Fourth of July weekend. 

Amity Police Chief Martin Brody reassures all visitors to return to the waters and to enjoy the weekend.

“I urge all our residents to recreate at the beaches in order to encourage the participation of all our visitors in the wonderful water sports of which we all so happily partake throughout the summer,” Brody said. “Swim and have fun!”

Islanders and guests alike should not be alarmed by the presence of shark spotters from the Coast Guard, the Marine Patrol, the Massachusetts State Police, the U.S Navy, Homeland Security, the FBI, and numerous local municipal and county police agencies in the waters off our beaches.

“Again, while law enforcement officials urge vigilance on the part of all citizens, we believe we can safely say that the danger of further shark attacks has probably passed,” Brody said. “Amity’s darkest days are behind us. WE wish everyone a safe and happy 4^th of July.” 

Just when it was safe to go back in the water...

Just when it was safe to go back in the water off the beautiful Village Beach in Amity yesterday, Alex Kinter a 10 year-old local was tragically killed in what appeared to have been a vicious and unprovoked shark attack. It is now believed that the Kinter death has possible links to the recent death of Watson who died in Amity waters.

According to witnesses, including the chief of police, Kinter had been floating on a rubber raft off crowded Village Beach at 2 p.m. when the attack apparently occurred. His body has not been recovered. The damage raft floated ashore shortly after the incident with appeared to be a large bite out of it.

Alex’s mother, Marion Kinter, who was at the beach at the time her son disappeared, is being treated for shock at Amity General Hospital, where she is in fair condition. There were no other injuries.

“I join Amity Mayor Larry Vaughn in expressing the town’s deepest and most sincere condolences to the Kinter family,” Amity Police Chief Martin Brody said. “Now we know that these random acts of senseless violence, victimizing innocent, helpless citizens, do not just happen in the city.”

The mayor, Brody, and the Amity Board of Selectmen met last night at 6 p.m. in the Amity Town Hall to discuss further actions regarding the recent deaths of two locals off the beaches in Amity.

When asked if the beaches were going to be closed due to the recent incidents, Brody was all in for it.

“The beaches will be closed,” Brody said.

However, Mayor Vaughn stressed that the beaches will only be closed for 24 hours though Brody disagreed.

The Kinter family is offering a reward of $3,000 for the capture of perpetrators, which local fisherman Ben Quint believed to be a shark who in return would hunt down the vile perpetrator for a greater ante.

“This shark will swallow you whole,” Quint said. “3,000 dollars is not worth my neck, however I will kill this shark by myself, bringing its body back for the worth of 10,000 dollars.”

The offer is currently being taken under advisement by the mayor and selectmen.

As of now, investigation is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Brody is expected to gain extra summer deputies, shark spotters on beaches, and experts to the mainland of Amity in the help of bringing the two local deaths to justice. 

Being thankful

This morning I read an article by Megan Woolhouse and David Abel of the Boston Globe, and I was stunned to learn about just how many homeless families there are in the streets of Boston. An impressive 2,100 families are living in and out of motel rooms and assisted housing, which has been an increase from 2010. Despite Massachusetts being one of the first states to turn around from the recession four years ago, it is still getting affects economically and that starts with housing. Being a 19 year-old who grew up in the streets of Boston for the first 12 years of my life it really hits home with me by reading this article. You can find this article at the front page of today's Globe. 

"Record numbers of homeless families are overwhelming the state’s emergency shelter system, filling motel rooms at the cost to taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars a year.

An average of nearly 2,100 families a night — an all-time high — were temporarily housed in motel rooms in October, just about equaling the number of families in emergency shelters across the state, according to be the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development." ~ Megan Woolhouse and David Abel

I learned in the article that one of the strong reasons why there are so many homeless families is due to the uneven recovery, and the lack of cut housing and food subsidies. 

"This jump in homelessness is another example of an uneven recovery. Even as stocks soar to new heights and real estate values rebound, many of the state’s poorest residents remain without jobs and homes four years after the last recession. The problems have been compounded by the dramatic federal spending cuts, known as sequestration, which have cut housing and food subsidies." ~Megan Woolhouse and David Abel

Another thing that was hard to swallow by reading this article was hearing that a college student by the name of Felicita Diaz has a family struggling while she is at college. I can only imagine if it was my family, and how hard that would be for me to just pay attention in school. This article does a good job at explaining the "so what", and it digs deeper into its affects towards people of the Boston Community like this college student. 

"Diaz, 18, a freshman at UMass Boston, said she took the commuter rail to get to her first day of college and then stayed with friends so she could attend classes and keep her job in the admissions office. But her 11-year-old brother missed about three weeks of school because the family could not afford the daily $9 fare to and from Boston on the commuter rail. Her mother had to quit her English as a Second Language classes because of the distance." ~Megan Woolhouse and David Abel

After reading this article I am very thankful to have my family still in their homes, and I am thankful that I do not have to worry about that issue while being away at college, however I do have other things to worry about. Having a shelter, water, and food is something I will not take for granted, because you never know when that gets taken away from you just like these families who are having trouble with these three necessities for survival. 

Swimming in Amity is safe, despite recent attacks

Swimmers off the coast of New Hampshire should have no fear at becoming a victim to a shark attack, despite the recent deaths of two Amity locals.

New Hampshire beaches are safe and will remain safe this summer. Shark attacks are very rare. So rare that you have a more likelihood of being struck by lighting according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

The Florida Museum of Natural History compares these statistics with the much higher rate of deaths from other, less feared causes. For example, an average of more than 38 people die annually from lightning strikes in coastal states, while less than 1 person per year is killed by a shark, according to the museum.

Even considering only people who go to beaches, a person's chance of getting attacked by a shark in the United States is 1 in 11.5 million, and a person's chance of getting killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million. In the United States, the annual number of people who drown is 3,306, whereas the annual number of shark fatalities is 1. 

However, according to James Sulikowski, a shark expert from the University of New England, anecdotal evidence suggest that the number of great whites along the coast of Maine is growing.

With the heavenly growth of seals in the area, means a vast food supply for great whites to feed from. Like many experts alike, the common advice is to stay away from waters with a populated area of seals to avoid risk.

To reassure any beach goers that even with the spike of great white sightings on the coast of New Hampshire and Maine doesn't mean that there is a greater likelihood to be attacked.

‘‘You have a much greater chance of dying by getting hit by a toilet seat in a freak accident, struck by lightning, you name it, than being attacked and eaten by a shark,’’ Sulikowski said in a August 3, 2013 article to the Boston Globe.

Looking back on News Writing I

The semester is coming to a close. Boy does time sure fly by! When I look back on this class and everything that I have done, I must say I feel a little more comfortable with writing news stories. I have learned a good deal, and most of it on my own, because we are reporters you know? We have to go out and accomplish things, not the teacher.

Whether it was writing for TNH or this class, I feel a lot more confident in my writing and that is going to be crucial coming into my next semester. I enjoyed writing in-class news stories quickly and thoroughly, it really gave me a feel what a real newsroom would feel like. Watching the movies in class and trying my best to gather as much information regarding the "in-scene" moments to use for when I write the news stories pertaining to the movie.

There is just so much I learned, and I really am glad I took this class, because I really do feel like this is what I want to do in my future believe it or not. I know I wasn't a standout in class, but I truly believe I have the tools to be successful. It is all about giving it your all, and really working at it. Writing A+ stories will take me awhile, but I know when I get there it will be worth it.

There is just so much I have yet to learn and there are so many ways to gather news and write it. I will be looking forward to working with other professors to improve my skills as a journalist, but I will not forget what Sandy taught me this semester. Overall, it is bittersweet to be leaving this class, but I do know that I will be taking a piece of it with me into my future!

Body washed ashore on remote section of South Beach in Amity

A high school teenager was killed Sunday night on a remote section of South Beach in Amity. The mangled body was washed ashore early this morning, and police have been continuing investigating ever since.

The body was identified as Chrissie Watson, 17, of 23 Sharkstooth St., Amity, and a senior at Amity High School. She was last seen alive leaving a beach party with another teen, a male identified as Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III, a sophomore at Trinity College and former resident of the island, at about 11 p.m.

Police Chief Martin Brody described the body as disturbing to the eye.

“With all due respect to Watson’s family I will not describe any further to what it looked like,” Brody said.

According to police, Hoggenbottam recognized Watson as a member of the varsity swim team at Amity High School and a lifeguard at the Amity Island YMCA pool in Oak Bluffs. The two reportedly decided to go swimming and entered the water at a remote section of South Beach near the South Beach Shoal bell buoy.

Police also learned from Hoggenbottam that both teenagers had been drinking heavily and possibly smoking marijuana during the evening.

“Hoggenbottam was passed out on the beach,” Brody said. “He was not in the right mind state to identify where Watson might have ended up after her time in the water. It was only after he woke up did he realize that she was nowhere in sight.”

When Watson did not return from the water, Hoggenbottam notified police at about 6 a.m. After a brief search, Watson’s mauled body was found by Police Deputy Jay Hendricks early in the morning washed up on the beach.

The body was described by police as being severely wounded by an attacker of unknown origin.

Though a shark attack has not been completely ruled out, Brody wants to assure all residents and visitors on the island that they are in no danger.

“There is no reason to believe that this was indeed a shark attack,” Brody said. “Our beaches will remain open for swimming until otherwise.”

Since then, Watson’s body has been transported to the coroner’s office for autopsy. No charges have been filed in the case, and police are continuing their investigation into the incident.

In-class assignment

At 4:08 p.m. Sunday, New York City Police Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, assigned to the Narcotics Division, shot and killed a suspected assassin, Pierre Jeantot, 36, of Nice, France. Four others were killed during the incident.

Jeantot was allegedly working on behalf of a French drug kingpin whom Doyle and his partner, Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, had been investigating. He was killed by one shot from Doyle’s .38 caliber service revolver at the bottom of the steps to the platform of the 15^th St. elevated railway station. A .44 Magnum revolver was recovered from the train.

According to the police investigation, the events unfolded from the roof of an apartment building at 1767 W. 57th Ave.

Four shots were fired. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Doyle hit the ground with his brown leather briefcase in hand, scurrying across the ground dodging the bullets shelled from above. Some people shriek hitting the ground in defense, babies cry, and others run away from the scene.

Robert Wilson, 29, sitting at a park bench close by reading the daily paper witnessed the entire scene from an angle of the ground.

 Quickly, Doyle found his .38 caliber service revolver from the pocket of his trench coat. Proceeding away from the sight of the assassin, Doyle covered ground against the apartment building.

Pursuing the suspect from the 35^th St. Station, Doyle ended the chase at the 15^th St. Station. Jeantot had hijacked the train, killing three people, while Doyle chased the train in a commanded car.

The three victims that were fatally killed on the train were Roland Evans, 34, of Brooklyn, a 15-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, Horatio C. Hornblower, 30,  a conductor of the hijacked train, of White Plains, Peter Howe, 27, a trainman, of Queens, who died of a heart attack at the controls.

“Let me just say it is always unfortunate when these incidents end in a loss of life,” Ruth L. Ess, the New York City Police commissioner said. “We would have preferred to see Jeantot prosecuted in the courts, and we believe Doyle was close to a breakthrough in the case.”

The fourth victim of the chase came at the beginning, when Jeantot had fired several shots at Doyle from the roof of an apartment building at 1767 W. 57^th Ave. One of the shots directly hit Betty B. Badluck, 63, of the Bronx who was a pedestrian walking her granddaughter near Doyle’s apartment.

Ess, suggests that Jeantot had been assigned to assassinate Doyle. Police officers recovered an automatic rifle and several shell castings from the roof of the apartment building.

“We commend Dective Doyle for his bravery and quick thinking under very trying circumstances,” Ess said. “We will continue a vigorous and thorough investigation into what appears to be a major smuggling operation. We will not sit while drug dealers walk our streets.”