logo
20-year-old charged with sexual battery after jogger attacked on Seminole Wekiva Trail

20-year-old charged with sexual battery after jogger attacked on Seminole Wekiva Trail

Yahoo12 hours ago
A 20-year-old man is behind bars after investigators say he attacked and raped a woman on the Seminole Wekiva Trail in Longwood.
According to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, the attack happened Monday afternoon around 4 p.m. Deputies arrested Patrick Gamache, 20, and charged him with sexual battery.
He is being held in the Seminole County Jail. 'I was in shock and I also felt really bad,' said Darian Mohebpour, who was nearby when the crime happened.
Mohebpour, who works at the building right next to where the incident was reported, said one of his coworkers heard the woman scream for help just before police arrived and blocked off the trail. 'The police officers blocked off the trail, while the EMT went into the trail with the stretcher, and I didn't know what was going on,' Mohebpour said. 'I found out from another witness that they heard screaming.'
According to a police report, a witness saw the victim on the ground with Gamache on top of her.
In a 911 call, a witness can be heard telling dispatchers, 'I need police and medical, there's a woman being assaulted in the trail behind my work.'
According to the Sheriff's Office, Gamache used a scooter during the attack and left his T-shirt behind at the scene.
Witnesses who called 911 were able to help investigators identify him. Gamache is expected to face a judge Wednesday.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Court revives lawsuit alleging South Florida city's zoning restrictions on gun shop's operations violates state law
Court revives lawsuit alleging South Florida city's zoning restrictions on gun shop's operations violates state law

CBS News

time23 minutes ago

  • CBS News

Court revives lawsuit alleging South Florida city's zoning restrictions on gun shop's operations violates state law

A divided appeals court Wednesday revived a lawsuit that alleges a South Florida city's zoning restrictions on where a gun shop could operate violated a state law that prevents local regulation of firearms. A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, overturned a circuit judge's ruling in favor of Dania Beach and said a jury should decide whether the city's zoning ordinances were designed to restrict the sale of firearms. The case involves a decades-old law that largely gives the state control over gun regulations and prevents local governments from passing their own measures. The law includes an exception for zoning ordinances that "encompass firearms businesses along with other businesses" — but those ordinances cannot be designed to restrict or bar sales of guns. Florida Custom Guns, LLC., a gun shop that does business as Affluent Arms, and the gun-rights group Florida Carry, Inc., filed the lawsuit after city code-enforcement officials cited the shop for operating in a zoning district where such businesses were prohibited, according to Wednesday's ruling. The city said gun shops were allowed in two other zoning districts reserved for businesses such as thrift shops, liquor stores and warehouses. The lawsuit alleged that the city approved the gun-shop zoning restrictions to restrict or prevent sales of firearms, in violation of the state law. But the city argued that it also doesn't allow other types of businesses — such as check-cashing stores, pawn shops, flea markets, drug or alcohol treatment facilities, funeral homes and lumber stores — in the zoning district where the gun shop was prohibited, according to Wednesday's ruling. A circuit judge granted summary judgment to the city, short-circuiting a potential trial. But in overturning that decision Wednesday, the appeals-court majority said given the "zoning ordinances' alleged cause-and-effect upon the retailer's firearms business, and upon firearms businesses generally, a factual dispute exists for a jury to decide" whether the zoning ordinances were designed to restrict firearms sales. "In effect, the defendants (Dania Beach and city officials) contend that as long as the zoning ordinances treat several other businesses in an arguably unfavorable manner, the zoning ordinances may treat firearms businesses in the same unfavorable manner. Not so," said the majority opinion, written by Judge Jonathan Gerber and joined by Judge Alan Forst. But Judge Martha Warner dissented, writing that city officials "provided evidence of the original enactment of the ordinances as part of a rewrite of the entire zoning code, and supported their position with attorney general opinions concluding that zoning ordinances limiting firearm activity in certain zoning districts along with other businesses did not run afoul of the statute." "I would also point out that the plaintiff must prove the purpose of the zoning ordinances was to prohibit the sale, etc. of firearms. … That the effect of the ordinances limited firearm sales would not necessarily prove their purpose," Warner wrote.

Well-known rhinocerous breeder among 6 arrested in South Africa over $14 million rhino horn trafficking scheme
Well-known rhinocerous breeder among 6 arrested in South Africa over $14 million rhino horn trafficking scheme

CBS News

timean hour ago

  • CBS News

Well-known rhinocerous breeder among 6 arrested in South Africa over $14 million rhino horn trafficking scheme

Six people, including a well-known rhinocerous breeder, have been charged in South Africa in connection to an international rhino horn trafficking network after a seven-year investigation, officials announced Tuesday. The suspects are accused of smuggling 964 horns worth $14.1 million to illegal markets in Southeast Asia. They face charges of fraud, theft and violating a national biodiversity law, the South African government said. Trading in rhino horns is legal in South Africa among citizens, but local laws do not allow for their export due to an international ban. The investigation by the country's specialized Hawks police unit "is a powerful demonstration of South Africa's resolve to protect its natural heritage," Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Dion George said in a statement. "The Hawks' work shows that our enforcement agencies will not hesitate to pursue those who plunder our wildlife for criminal profit." Among the six suspects is John Hume, the former owner of the world's largest rhino conservation farm. The 19,270-acre "Platinum Rhino" site in a northern province of South Africa was bought by the African Parks NGO in 2023 and is home to around 2,000 animals, about 15% of the world's remaining wild population of southern white rhino. Hume, in his mid 80s, and the five others appeared in a magistrate's court in the capital Pretoria and were granted bail, a spokesperson for the Hawks told the Agence France-Presse. Zimbabwe-born Hume sparked controversy in 2017 by organizing a three-day online auction of horns he had amassed by sawing them off the rhinos in order to prevent their killing by poachers, though the sale attracted fewer buyers than anticipated. Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets, particularly in Asia, where the price by weight rivals that of gold and cocaine. Alongside ivory, the horns are coveted as status symbols or used in traditional medicine for their supposed aphrodisiac properties. The organization Save the Rhino praised the arrests on Tuesday. "Disrupting transnational organised crime is essential to stopping poaching, allowing populations to recover and ensuring rhinos have a future in the wild," the group's CEO, Jo Shaw, said in a statement.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store