TEWKSBURY, Mass.

Police fatally shoot man suspected of stabbing two

A prosecutor says police fatally shot an armed man suspected of stabbing two people, including a woman he once dated, outside a Tewksbury career training school.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said 30-year-old Doug Sparks of Medford argued with the woman and a man who arrived in a car at the Salter School around 9 a.m. Tuesday. The school said the victims are admissions staffers.

Ryan said Sparks slashed the car’s tires and stabbed the victims in the arms and hands. The injuries weren’t life-threatening. Ryan said Sparks took the woman a short distance in his car, then ran.

She said two officers found him nearby and shot him when he refused to follow orders. Ryan said Sparks had a knife and a BB handgun.

The school said it’s providing counseling on campus and cooperating with police.

BOSTON

Mayor wants people to stop jumping out of windows

Boston residents overwhelmed by massive snowfalls the last month have been recording videos of themselves jumping out of windows and into snowbanks, and Mayor Marty Walsh wants them to cut it out.

The Boston Herald reported that Walsh chastised thrill-seekers who’ve been filming themselves performing the frosty feat and then posting the videos on social media websites.

Walsh says, “It’s a foolish thing to do, and you could kill yourself.”

He says Boston “isn’t Loon Mountain,” a New Hampshire ski resort. He said Monday the stunts are dangerous as city workers struggle to clear snow-clogged streets and deal with snowbanks 10 feet high.

The city has scrambled to keep roads clear after the record-breaking snowfalls.

TROY, N.H.

On the lam for three years, dog slowed by snow, caught

Here’s an upside to all this snow: It was so deep in Troy, New Hampshire, that residents were finally able to capture a black Labrador retriever who’d been on the lam for three years.

The wily female pup, who’s 3 or 4 years old, had been spotted regularly, but nobody could get close enough for a grab. That changed on Sunday night when Courtney Davis and his girlfriend, Tiffany Bennett, spotted her running from an abandoned trailer. Hampered by deep, fluffy snow after a series of heavy storms, the dog couldn’t get away again.

Carl Patten Jr., who’s been keeping the pooch in his heated garage since then, said Tuesday that he’s using two collars on her: one a harness and the other around her neck, just to be safe.

“It’s like Houdini, this dog,” Patten said. “That’s what we nicknamed her. She’s calming down quite a bit, but she still wants her freedom.”

Folks in the southwestern New Hampshire town had tried for three years to lure her close or catch her in humane traps. No dice. Residents left food out, and the Lab could be seen traipsing around carrying squirrels that had been road kill. Patten said it took a little adjustment to her new surroundings, but the dog is eating now.

The rescue organization Granite State Dog Recovery is asking for the public’s help in finding the dog’s owner. A tracking microchip was implanted in New Hampshire, but the paperwork was never registered.

The dog has heartworm and Lyme disease and will require some medical treatment. A local veterinarian, Dr. Andrew Cooke, checked her out and gave her a rabies vaccine, Patten said.

EPPING, N.H.

Concerns of snow on roofs keep school districts closed

Two school districts remain closed a day after schools were evacuated over concerns of snow buildup on roofs.

The Epping and Newton school districts were closed Tuesday for snow removal and repairs.

A teacher on Monday noticed the ceiling sagging in a classroom at Sanborn Middle School in Newton. Cracks were seen around the doorways of some classrooms in Epping.

On Tuesday afternoon, Moharimet Elementary School in Madbury was evacuated after cracks were seen on the walls, believed to be caused by the heavy snow on the roof.

BOSTON

Appeals court upholds dismissal of gaming suit

A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Caesars Entertainment against the state’s top gambling regulator.

The Las Vegas company said Massachusetts Gambling Commission chairman Stephen Crosby violated its constitutional rights and unfairly favored a competing casino plan from Wynn Resorts. Caesars had been a partner with Suffolk Downs in a proposed casino project at the horse track, but withdrew amid suitability questions raised during a background check by commission investigators.

The appeals court, in a ruling dated Friday, upheld federal Judge Nathaniel Gorton’s dismissal.

Writing for the appellate court, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter said Caesars had not shown that any “cognizable protected property interest” had been infringed.

Wynn has since been awarded the sole eastern Massachusetts resort casino license.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.

Rockwell painting given to museum named for him

One of Norman Rockwell’s most recognizable works has been donated to the museum dedicated to his work.

“Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon (Puppy Love),” originally painted as a cover illustration for an April 1926 Saturday Evening Post, was given last week to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

The illustration depicts a young boy and girl sitting on a bench and looking at the moon, their backs facing the viewer. The boy has his arm around the girl’s waist, and a puppy sits behind them.

Bill Millis of High Point, North Carolina, bought the original in 1975 for $27,000. It’s now worth an estimated $4 million.

He told The Berkshire Eagle that he considered selling it, but decided to donate it to the museum he has visited many times.

DERRY, N.H.

Sprinkler system enables teen to escape house fire

A fire in a garage almost trapped a 14-year-old girl inside an adjoining house after one of her exits was blocked by snow, but a sprinkler head deployed, buying enough time for her to scamper out the other exit to safety, firefighters said.

Firefighters, who had been called by neighbors, arrived Monday evening to find flames engulfing the two-car garage and beginning to spread into the 21/2-story wood-frame home in Derry. The garage collapsed with big parts of the roof intact, suppressing the fire below the roof and making it more difficult to put out the flames, firefighters said.

The home was protected by a sprinkler system, and one sprinkler head between the garage and the home was activated, unleashing water onto the flames and preventing most of the fire from spreading to the house, firefighters said.

The girl was in the home’s basement, but the “secondary exit out of the basement was blocked by snow,” firefighters said.

The girl, aided by the sprinkler, scrambled out of the basement’s primary exit and made it out through the home’s front door, firefighters said. Without the sprinkler system, they said, the fire would have blocked her exit.

No injuries were reported in the fire, whose cause hadn’t been determined. Firefighters rescued a dog, which was uninjured.

The sprinkler system ran out of water while firefighting crews used their hoses. Part of the fire extended into the home’s attic and the roof of a porch.

The home’s living area was damaged by smoke and water and will be uninhabitable until it’s professionally cleaned, firefighters said. The garage was destroyed.

The fire loss, including the garage’s contents, was estimated to be $150,000.

NEWPORT, N.H.

Police say man shook baby twice out of anger at game

Police in Newport, New Hampshire, say a man has been accused of shaking his 3-month-old son twice, allegedly out of aggression toward a video game system.

Jerry Carrier faces two charges of first-degree assault and was to be arraigned Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately known if he had a lawyer.

WMUR-TV reported that police said the baby was taken from Newport to a hospital in January. Two weeks later, police said they responded to a similar incident in Charlestown; this time, the child was found unresponsive. His injuries were found to be from non-accidental trauma.

The baby is in state custody.

Police said the 26-year-old Carrier told them he shook the baby twice out of aggression toward a video game system.

— From news services