Winemaker Dies After Falling Into Wine Vat

A woman in Spain fell into a massive vat of wine and drowned when she lost her balance from the pungent fumes given off during the fermenting process.

Winemaker Nerea Perez, 25, was stirring the batch when she caught a whiff of the overwhelming odor and lost her balance — resulting in a tipsy tumble into the giant barrel, Central European News reports.

Workers were concerned when she suddenly disappeared and started searching the village of Salas de los Barrios in northern Spain.

Perez’s wine-making uncle Raul Perez eventually found her floating face down in the container.
Intoxication from the fermentation process is a notorious cause of accidents among vintners because it’s almost impossible to avoid breathing in the extremely powerful gases. The vapors are released when the “lees” or sediment — dead yeast and bits of grapes — are mixed together, according to CEN.

“Now is the time for harvesting grapes so a lot of villages around here have people working on stirring the wine in the barrels,” said Perez’s colleague Ginebra Peralta Colunga. “This is the first time this has happened, though.”

Via: http://nypost.com/2014/10/01/winemaker-dies-after-falling-into-a-vat-of-vino/

Murderer Finishes 30-Year Term, Kills Mother after Welcome Home Party

A 45-year-old man who on Friday finished serving 30 years in prison is charged with killing his mother two days after being released, authorities said.

Steven Pratt was arrested Sunday morning, less than 48 hours after he was freed from Bayside State Prison for killing his neighbor in 1984.

Gwendolyn Pratt, 64, was found dead in her McKinley Avenue home around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Atlantic City Prosecutor Jim McClain said. She died of massive blunt injuries to her head.

A welcome-home party for Steven Pratt had just been held, PressofAC.com reported.

Pratt was tried as an adult after shooting Michael Anderson in a Carver Hall apartment building in Atlantic City 30 years ago, according to the website.

According to court records, Pratt and Anderson argued after Pratt and some of his friends refused to leave an apartment hallway where they were noisily hanging out. Pratt returned to Anderson's apartment with a lead pipe, but Anderson took the weapon away and bloodied Pratt's face.

Pratt then returned with a borrowed handgun and shot Anderson.

He is now being held in lieu of $1 million bail, the prosecutor said.

Via: http://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf/2014/10/man_kills_mother_less_than_2_days_after_getting_out_of_prison_after_serving_30_years_for_murder.html#incart_m-rpt-1

'Hunger Games' Stuntman Falls To Death Attempting Off-Duty Leap

A Hollywood stuntman who worked on the latest "Hunger Games" movie has died after falling five stories while on vacation in Portugal, officials said Friday. Carlos Lopez, 25, was originally from Concord, North Carolina. His screen credits included "22 Jump Street," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Olympus Has Fallen." Lopez plunged from the fifth floor of the Goodnight Hostel in downtown Lisbon at 4 a.m. Thursday (11 p.m. ET Wednesday), two local police sources told NBC News. He was travelling with his girlfriend.

A hostel employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that Lopez was a guest and often spoke of his love of parkour — the practice of using the urban environment as an obstacle course. Lopez's girlfriend heard the fall and alerted staff who in turn contacted police. Dale Girard, director of the North Carolina Stuntmen's Association where Lopez trained, descried him as "a great friend…a formidable role model with great respect, discipline and personality. He was very caring, giving, and dedicated." A local police source confirmed that his death appeared to be accidental.

Man Shot 15 Minutes After Finishing a 15 Year Prison Term

A Manhattan man was sprung from an upstate prison Thursday after serving 15 years — only to be shot 15 minutes later by a thug he snitched on, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The 33-year-old man was released from Otisville State Prison at 9:45 a.m. with a train ticket for a trip to a halfway house in Manhattan.

But when he got outside, someone in a white Hyundai offered him a ride — an offer he quickly accepted.

After about two miles, the car pulled over and a second person hopped out of the trunk, pulled out a gun and fired two shots at the newly freed man, police sources said.

The victim stumbled to the Metro-North station in Otisville, where workers called for help, sources said.

He was taken to West­chester Medical Center and is in stable condition.

The victim — who served time for criminal sale of a controlled substance, weapons and assault — identified the shooter.

The guman had a beef with the victim for snitching on him, sources said.

Cops tracked the two suspects —  Jerome A. Mack and Edgar Wilson, both 35 — to the Upper East Side and arrested them Thursday evening.

Via: http://nypost.com/2014/10/09/man-released-from-prison-shot-by-guy-he-snitched-on/

Man Struck by Train While Attempting to Retrieve His Phone

A man was struck and killed by a train in Brooklyn early Sunday when he jumped onto the tracks to retrieve what authorities believe was a cell phone.

The southbound Q-train operator, rolling into the Prospect Park station on Flatbush Avenue shortly after 3 a.m., saw the victim hop onto the tracks to pick something up, law enforcement sources said.

But the operator wasn’t able to stop the train in time and the man, whose identity was not immediately known, was crushed between the platform and train, authorities said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Via: http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/man-killed-by-train-after-trying-to-retrieve-cell-phone-from-tracks/

Man Killed by Train While Urinating on the Platform

Police are investigating the leak of a gruesome subway-surveillance video showing a train dragging a man to his death, a transit official said.

The shocking images, captured by a MTA security camera in Penn Station Saturday morning, apparently were copied and then posted on the Internet, according to a source who watched the video.

“It’s the most disturbing thing you’ve ever seen,” the source said.

The 23-year-old was struck at about 1 a.m. while walking back to the northbound A-train platform from a narrow tunnel walkway where he went to urinate, police said over the weekend.

In the video, the man appears to lose his footing while pushing through a “Do Not Enter” swing gate separating the walkway and platform.

Via: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/police-investigate-gory-subway-video-leaked-article-1.1966589