Derrick Shaw

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. The Punta Gorda police officer charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of retired librarian Mary Knowlton met briefly Wednesday with city officials who’ll determine the future of his employment.

FORT MYERS, Fla. A scathing audit of Fort Myers Police Department practices could lead past criminal convictions to be overturned, according to a defense attorney. The city-commissioned audit, conducted by a Delaware-based risk management firm, was highly critical of the way some investigations were handled. Fort Myers-based attorney Scott Moorey doesn’t foresee a blanket dismissal of […]

FORT MYERS, Fla. The real heroes on the field Wednesday at Hammond Stadium weren’t the ones wearing baseball uniforms. Veterans Brad Bradley, 93, and Wendell Trent, 91, both survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima, were honored before the Minnesota Twins spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nearly 100 family members, fellow veterans and […]

FORT MYERS, Fla. Sandy Modell has been silent for nearly a year. Modell’s 32-year-old son, Ryan, was killed last March in the Emerson Square community of south Fort Myers. He accidentally went to the wrong unit on his walk home from the pool, where he had been drinking with friends, according to investigators. The man […]

ESTERO, Fla. Council members met Wednesday to decide whether to remove a council member battling cancer. Council member Don Brown missed 19 out of 80 meetings due to cancer treatments, leading some, including fellow council members, to contend his absence is causing his district to suffer. But many residents disagree. “If we wanna help him […]

SANIBEL, Fla. Three ailing sea turtles were treated at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation for Wildlife. One turtle had to have fishing hooks surgically removed after mistaking them for food. Another turtle has buoyancy issues due to red tide. The third is suffering from contagious tumors and, after a stay at CROW, was shipped to […]

(AP) Investors bet big on U.S. stocks Wednesday, giving the market its biggest single-day gain in nearly four months and pushing the major indexes to record highs. The Dow Jones industrial average rose above 21,000 points for the first time in what was the biggest gain for the blue-chip index so far this year. Banks […]

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. Lee County Sheriff’s deputies stopped and checked cars Wednesday afternoon on East Street near Bayshore Road. Deputies were searching for a driver who fled a traffic stop by Love’s Travel Shop on 17308 Park 78 Drive, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said Wednesday. A helicopter was used in the search. Deputies moved […]

FORT MYERS, Fla. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Lee County Sheriff’s Office over the use of a radar detector that had yet to receive state approval. Mabel Lopez brought the suit after a 2012 traffic stop, which she claimed was without probable cause. The deputy who stopped her used a Python II […]

FORT MYERS, Fla. A Lee County deputy was fired Tuesday following an Internal Affairs investigation. Deputy Raymond Gallagher used unnecessary force and did not give an accurate narrative on the booking sheet he filed after a traffic stop on U.S. 41 near Gladiolus Drive in October 2016, the sheriff’s office said. Gallagher pulled over a […]