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Update: Ruben Borrero has been safely located.

Original article: The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is seeking a missing Lehigh Acres man.

Ruben Borrero, 52, is a 5’7 Hispanic man weighing around 150 lbs, with short black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen at his home on Tangelo Court.

Borrero left home on foot wearing a blue jacket with a white t-shirt, beige shorts and tan tennis shoes. Those with any information on Borrero’s whereabouts are urged to call the LCSO at (239) 477-1000.

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We witnessed a kindness among those who were waiting in line overnight together for the coronavirus vaccine at Lakes Regional Library in south Fort Myers. One couple was even handing out cups of coffee to others.

The first few in line told us no there knew each other, but they have certainly been together over the past 10 months during an isolating experience.

In the line for vaccines, seniors 65 and over were together with hope, folding chairs, snacks and quiet conversations. Many people had similar stories to share.

“A friend of mine that died from the virus, he was from where I came from in Nevada,” Kit Kerkesner said. “That was a horrible way to learn. Oh, yeah, this virus is for real.”

For Kerkesner, the chance to get the vaccine felt unreal.

“I think that’s fantastic,” Kerkesener said. “Governor DeSantis, when he did the 65 and over thing, he’s got my vote for life. I don’t know what more to tell you.”

Mark Langemo and Kerkesner are now lifelong friends. It’s a bond built long before they stepped in line.

“I can’t imagine this Christmas the number of young people that didn’t have a grandmother or a grandfather or a parent at Christmas time,” Langemo said. “And for our precious eight grandkids, I didn’t want to be one of them.”

Langemo waited in line to make sure the love of his life won’t be “one of them” either.

“I’ve been concerned about her every day,” Langemo said. “You still have to go to the grocery store and do the occasional things you have to do to live life. But I’ve been incredibly concerned about her, and this is a major step in terms of being able to protect her.”

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Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of two officers connected to Breonna Taylor’s death — the one who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to her apartment and another found to have opened fire.

Detective Joshua Jaynes received a pretermination letter, media outlets reported Tuesday. It came after a Professional Standards Unit investigation found he had violated department procedures for preparation of a search warrant and truthfulness, his attorney said.

Detective Myles Cosgrove also received a pretermination letter, media outlets later reported, citing his attorney, Jarrod Beck. Kentucky’s attorney general has said it was Cosgrove who appeared to have fired the fatal shot at Taylor, according to ballistics tests.

The shooting death of the 26-year-old Black woman in her home sparked months of protests in Louisville alongside national protests over racial injustice and police misconduct.

Jaynes has a hearing with interim Chief Yvette Gentry and her staff on Thursday.

“Detective Jaynes and I will show up for the pretermination hearing to try to convince acting Chief Gentry that this action is unwarranted,” attorney Thomas Clay told the Courier Journal. “Jaynes did nothing wrong.”

Jaynes was not present during the shooting at Taylor’s apartment in Louisville. About 12 hours earlier, he secured a warrant with a “no-knock” clause from a judge.

In Jaynes’ pretermination letter, Gentry said, the officer committed “extreme violations of our policies, which endangered others.”

“Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the department,” she wrote. “Your conduct has severely damaged the image our department has established within our community.”

Officers were serving a narcotics warrant on March 13 when they shot Taylor, but no drugs or cash were found in her home. Taylor was an emergency medical worker who had settled in for the night when police busted through her door.

Former officer Brett Hankison was charged by a grand jury with wanton endangerment, a low-level felony, for firing into an adjacent apartment where people were present. The two officers who shot Taylor, according to ballistics evidence, were not charged by the grand jury. One of those officers was shot by Taylor’s boyfriend during the raid and returned fire. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought an intruder was breaking into her apartment.

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Luke Letlow, Louisiana’s newest Republican member of the U.S. House, died Tuesday night from complications related to COVID-19 only days before being sworn into office. He was 41 years old.

Letlow spokesman Andrew Bautsch confirmed the congressman-elect’s death at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport.

“The family appreciates the numerous prayers and support over the past days but asks for privacy during this difficult and unexpected time,” Bautsch said in a statement. “A statement from the family along with funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time.”

The incoming congressman, elected in a December runoff and set to take office in January, was admitted to a Monroe hospital on Dec. 19 after testing positive for the coronavirus disease. He was later transferred to the Shreveport facility and placed in intensive care.

Letlow is survived by his wife, Julia Barnhill Letlow, and two children.

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Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County says it’s already booked through the start of January, as it plans to start vaccinating for the coronavirus Wednesday.

A woman we spoke to said she spent three hours trying to book a spot with no luck.

“What about all these really elderly people in their seventies, eighties and nineties that don’t have a computer or can’t see well enough to see a computer or can’t sit at a computer,” Paula De Rienzo said. “How are they going to get their vaccine?”

We went to Harold Avenue Regional Park Tuesday night, where Charlotte County is planned to give out the first round of vaccines in the morning.

On the bright side, there was no line in Charlotte County after hundreds of people successfully set up appointments. But as mentioned, it was not all smooth sailing for everyone.

We did speak to people waiting in line for vaccines at North Fort Myers Park and Recreation Center in Lee County, who were taking the chance to get the vaccine seriously.

“It’s just too scary. I’ve never in 75 years never come across anything that scares us like this, so that’s why we’re willing to wait all night to get the vaccine,” David Curtis said.

David and his wife Joanne Curtis were prepared to stay in line for 16 hours because they want their shot at normalcy.

“We got a call from one of our neighbors,” David said. “And we left within five minutes.”

“I brought some games. I brought dinner. I have breakfast for tomorrow morning,” Joanne said.

For them and lots of people their age, new vaccines aren’t something new at all.

“I was one of the kids picked in my class to be a polio pioneer. I was in second grade, I think,” David said. “The world is so different when we grew up than what you’re growing up with now.”

Streyffeler agreed with the sentiments David shared regarding the vaccine today.

“It was if the doctor told you to do it, you just did it,” said Dr. Laura Streyffeler, a clinical psychologist. “Now, people are researching differently. There’s also lots of information.”

Streyffeler said the generation that’s grown up with internet has a different view on many things, and the vaccine is no exception.

“Years ago, vaccines weren’t something that you thought about; they were just something that you did,” Streyffeler said. “You know, you vaccinate your kids before school. There are certain things that you did, and people didn’t question them the way that they researched them now.”

If you ask Joanne and David Curtis, this time around is different

“This is way more serious,” Joanne said.

“Just look at the death rate around the world and in the U.S., I mean, nobody can stop it,” David said.

As the lines keep growing over in Lee County, there are no more appointments here in Charlotte County until after Jan. 8.

The county said to check back on its website Jan. 6 to see when more appointments will open up.

The people lucky enough to book appointments will get their first dose Wednesday at Harold Avenue Regional Park.

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If there’s one silver lining in a year marred by a deadly pandemic, civil unrest, and economic and political turmoil, it’s this: The number of mass shootings that happened in public was the lowest in more than a decade.

Experts who research mass killings say there are two key reasons for the sharp drop-off. For one, most people avoided going out in public during coronavirus lockdowns, which meant fewer opportunities for slayings in workplaces or schools. For another, Americans were so focused on other tragedies that would-be gunmen were less likely to consider carrying out attacks.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings — defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter — back to 2006 showed just two public mass shootings this year. Both happened before the lockdowns took hold.

The first mass shooting of the year was on Feb. 26, when an employee at a brewery in Milwaukee killed five co-workers before killing himself. The other occurred on March 15, when a man killed four people in Springfield, Missouri, before killing himself.

Since then? Not one.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, said he hopes the lull will help break the cycle of the past few years and help tamp down on mass shootings. The so-called “contagion effect” suggests that the more we hear about and talk about mass slayings, the more gunmen fixate on carrying out attacks.

At the same time, in the midst of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, people who might otherwise feel compelled to wreak such carnage may not feel quite as persecuted or alone in experiencing hardships, he said.

“The thing about mass shooters is they tend to be people who feel that they are the victims of injustice. Well, lots of people now are suffering, not just them,” Fox said. “It’s hard to say right now that your own plight is unique or unfair. It may not feel good, but there’s certainly reason for it. And it’s not because of something someone’s doing to you. It’s really the pandemic, which is a thing not a person.”

Besides the two public mass shootings this year, the AP/USA Today/Northeastern database tracked 10 family mass slayings, eight of which were shootings. Three mass killings were carried out in the course of other crimes, and six attacks that happened for unknown reasons. Of those six, one may end up being classified as a public mass shooting — a Juneteenth block party in Charlotte, North Carolina, that was rocked by gunfire that killed four people.

The change in the number of public mass shootings is the most stark. In 2019 and 2018, there were nine and 10 such shootings, respectively.

In many ways, it’s surprising to experts given that, over the past year, people spent more time online, sometimes in the dark corners of the internet, and possibly feeling depressed or hopeless. Firearm purchases also reached levels never before seen.

“All of these risk factors are going up, but yet we’re not seeing the mass shootings,” said Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University and a forensic psychologist who previously worked in New York crafting psychological profiles of convicted murderers facing the death penalty.

mass shooting data
Mass killings are defined as incidents where four or more are killed, not including the shooter. Public mass shootings are those that are not instances of domestic violence and are not associated with gang conflict, drug trade or other criminal activity.

While the drop-off in high-profile shootings is heartening, experts who track gun violence note that other shootings appear to have risen this year: gang violence, drive-by shootings and other random firearm deaths. Suicides involving a gun appear in line with previous years, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.

The GVA, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Under that definition, the group’s research shows a spike in shootings, with about 600 so far this year. That’s more than any of the previous six years since the GVA began tracking gun violence.

However, the overall decline in mass killings is “almost a natural experiment for the test of the role of the contagion factor,” said James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota who studies mass shootings. “At the moment, we’ve got this pause, this break that we’re in, and that has the potential to really stop this cycle.”

If another mass shooting occurs when the nation reopens, “and it becomes a big thing again, there’s a risk that sort of restarts the cycle all over again,” he said.

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A man meets the woman he helped save from a scary bear attack in a Collier County. But he says not to call him a hero.

He detailed how his normal bike ride turned into a rescue mission. Joe Schmitt says it was a scary site. “The bear got up on its hind legs and it actually towered over you,” Schmitt says.

This is the first time he and the woman he saved are trading stories. “She was punching punching and kicking it it was unbelievable. You did it all!”

Kathleen Boyle says her dad did teach her a little about bears. “My dad just drummed into my head brown bear stay calm black bear you’ve got to stand and fight,” said Boyle.

Boyle hasn’t seen Schmitt since he helped her and her two dogs fight off a bear on Christmas Eve. The bear came at her in her Fiddler’s Creek Community.

She tried her best to find him. “We’ve contacted everyone we know in the community and said ‘do you know who it is?” Boyle said. “There’s a fellow who drives on his bike in the morning you know bright green bright yellow shirt.’ ‘Oh yeah we’ve seen him.’ ‘Who is it?’ ‘I don’t know his name.’ ‘Ahhh!!'”

Now, Boyle is finally getting to express her gratitude to the man who saved her. “Thank you so much! Only reason I’m standing is because you came around that corner and were able to distract the bear,” she said.

Schmitt said that he was just on his normal morning bike ride when he heard something. “Actually, just getting toward the end of the ride and I heard some screaming,” he said.

So, Joe Schmitt rode as fast as he could to help. “All I could think of was it was a matter of split-second you know I have to get down there I thought you were being attacked I mean I thought you were going to be bit,” Schmitt said.

Together, they were able to get the bear away.  “I said this is not going to be good I thought the next thing I’d be doing is first aid on you,” said Schmitt.

Boyle says she knew that there wouldn’t be many people out and just hoped someone would come and help.

“I know as Joe said there are only a few people out there early in the morning and I just was trying to hold on long enough that someone would be walking,” she said.

But, despite helping her, Schmitt says he doesn’t want too much credit. “I didn’t really do as much as she thinks I did because all they did was scream and yell and kind of get the bike in the way,” Schmitt said.

He believes it was all Kathleen. “She went full martial arts,” said Schmitt.

But whether he takes full credit or not, at least she got to thank him. “So delighted yes, we finally get to thank him because it would’ve been a different holiday for Don if Joe hadn’t come around that corner,” said Boyle.

Kathleen Boyle and her husband will forever be grateful to Joe Schmitt, the bicyclist.

One of Boyle’s dog’s, ironically named Bear, was injured in the encounter but is recovering well.

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Pierre Cardin, the French designer whose famous name embossed myriad consumer products after his iconic Space Age styles shot him into the fashion stratosphere in the 1960s, has died, the French Academy of Fine Arts said Tuesday. He was 98.

A licensing maverick, Cardin’s name embossed thousands of products from wristwatches to bed sheets, and in the brand’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, goods bearing his fancy cursive signature were sold at some 100,000 outlets worldwide.

That number dwindled dramatically in later years, as his products were increasingly regarded as cheaply made and his clothing – which, decades later, remained virtually unchanged from its 60s-era styles – felt almost laughably dated.

The French fashion designer Pierre Cardin (1922-) stands behind a picket fence. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) via CBS.

A savvy businessman, Cardin used the fabulous wealth that was the fruit of his empire to snap up top-notch properties in Paris, including the Belle Epoque restaurant Maxim’s, which he also frequented.

The Fine Arts Academy announced his death in a tweet Tuesday. He had been among its illustrious members since 1992. The academy did not give a cause of death or say where or when he died.

Along with fellow Frenchman Andre Courreges and Spain’s Paco Rabanne, two other Paris-based designers known for their Space Age styles, Cardin revolutionized fashion starting in the early 1950s.

At a time when other Paris labels were obsessed with flattering the female form, Cardin’s designs cast the wearer as a sort of glorified hanger, there to showcase the clothes’ sharp shapes and graphic patterns. Destined neither for pragmatists nor for wallflowers, his designs were all about making a big entrance – sometimes very literally.

Gowns and bodysuits in fluorescent spandex were fitted with plastic hoops that stood away from the body at the waist, elbows, wrists and knees. Bubble dresses and capes enveloped their wearers in oversized spheres of fabric. Toques were shaped like flying saucers; bucket hats sheathed the models’ entire head, with cutout windshields at the eyes.

“Fashion is always ridiculous, seen from before or after. But in the moment, it’s marvelous,” Cardin said in a 1970 interview with French television.

Cardin was born on July 7, 1922, in a small town near Venice, Italy, to a modest, working-class family. When he was a child, the family moved to Saint Etienne in central France where Cardin was schooled and became an apprentice to a tailor at age 14.

Cardin would later embrace his status as a self-made man, saying in the same 1970 interview that going it alone “makes you see life in a much more real way and forces you to take decision and to be courageous.

“It’s much more difficult to enter a dark woods alone than when you already know the way through,” he said.

After moving to Paris, he worked as an assistant in the House of Paquin starting in 1945 and also helped design costumes for the likes of Jean Cocteau. He also was involved in creating the costumes for the director’s 1946 hit, “Beauty and the Beast.”

After working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, Cardin opened his own house in the city’s tony first district.

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The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that’s been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday.

The variant was found in a man in his 20s who is in isolation southeast of Denver and has no travel history, state health officials said.

The Colorado State Laboratory confirmed the virus variant, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified.

Scientists in the U.K. believe the variant is more contagious than previously identified strains. The vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against the variant, Colorado health officials said in a news release.

Public health officials are investigating other potential cases and performing contact tracing to determine the spread of the variant throughout the state.

“There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious. The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority, and we will closely monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely,” Polis said.

Polis and state health officials are expected hold a news conference Wednesday.

The discovery of the new variant led the CDC to issue new rules on Christmas Day for travelers arriving to the U.S. from the U.K., requiring they show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

Worry has been growing about the variant since Saturday, when Britain’s prime minister said a new strain of the coronavirus seemed to spread more easily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. The nation’s first variant case was identified in southeast England.

Dozens of countries barred flights from the U.K., and southern England was placed under strict lockdown measures. Scientists say there is reason for concern but the new strains should not cause alarm.

Japan announced Monday it would bar entry of all nonresident foreign nationals as a precaution against the new strain.

New variants of the coronavirus have been seen almost since the virus was first detected in China nearly a year ago. It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population. The slight modifications are how scientists track the spread of a virus from one place to another.

But if the virus has significant mutations, one concern is that current vaccines might no longer offer the same protections. Although that’s a possibility to watch for over time with the coronavirus, experts say they don’t believe it will be the case with the latest variant.

The variant has also been found in Canada, Italy, India and the United Arab Emirates.

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Some people flying into a Southwest Florida airport were left without a ride after rental cars they reserved weren’t there.

New Year’s in Florida is a family tradition for the Anglemeyers.

“We were just coming down really to visit some family down this way and spend a few days with them,” said Todd Angelmeyer.

But their vacation didn’t get off on the right foot after they arrived at the counter in Punta Gorda Airport’s Rental Car Center.

“When we got there, the manager essentially said we have no vehicles for you, they’re all rented out, there’s absolutely nothing we can do for you.”

Anglemeyer estimates more than a hundred others were in the same position Sunday night. He said no Ubers were around and the local taxi company was slammed trying to keep up.

“Some people are going to Marco Island, some people are going to Tampa; there’s like a two-hour ride ahead of them after a long flight from the Midwest. It was just crazy,” Anglemeyer said.

He said an employee told them they’d get a refund and wrote on a business card they’d be reimbursed for the $140 cab to Fort Myers Beach.

Enterprise said in a statement they “have been working closely with them [customers] to get them into vehicles and compensate them for their inconvenience,” and that “with the current travel environment, typical holiday travel trends have changed and the ability to predict – and quickly and safely accommodate those needs – has also changed.”

Full statement from Enterprise Holdings:

“We apologize to those customers and we have been working closely with them to get them into vehicles and compensate them for their inconvenience. With the current travel environment, typical holiday travel trends have changed and the ability to predict – and quickly and safely accommodate those needs – has also changed. Safety and cleanliness, while always a primary focus, is more important now than ever. We have continued to bring in vehicles over the past 48 hours to meet demand and will continue to do so as needed.”

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