Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 19
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 19, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service there is a 40 percent of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 10 a.m. After this it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees. There will be a small chance for rain Tuesday evening as well, with a low of around 62 degrees.
Five Atkins volunteer firefighters were injured Monday when the firetruck they were riding in rolled into a ditch.
The accident happened on a rural road in Benton County shortly before 11 a.m., according to a news release issued by the city.
The firefighters were leaving the scene of one call and responding to the scene of another when the truck drove over an uneven surface on the side of the road, rolled into a ditch and landed on its top.
Five firefighters were taken to local hospitals where they were treated and released.
The truck, a 2022 model, was heavily damaged, the release states, but the department has an older truck that can be used to meet the city’s fire and rescue needs while the damaged truck is being repaired.
A Cedar Rapids woman waved a kitchen knife at a man, stabbing him several times, before leading police on a chase to get away, authorities said Monday.
40-year-old Latoya Taylor faces charges of attempted murder, an operating while intoxicated charge, and several other charges related to ensuing chase with police.
Police were called to the 1500 block of Washington Ave. SE about 6 p.m. Sunday for a report of a stabbing, according to Cedar Rapids police.
Officers found Willey Davis, 63, of Cedar Rapids, suffering from multiple stab wounds, including one to his neck, which was bleeding when police arrived, according to a criminal complaint.
A witness to the stabbing told police Taylor was the aggressor and that she had swung a kitchen knife at Davis, saying “I’m going to kill you,” according to the complaint. The court record did not say what relationship the two had.
When police arrived at the scene, they saw Taylor driving away in her mother’s vehicle. Officers turned on their emergency lights and sirens to initiate a traffic stop, but Taylor led them on a chase, during which she ran a stoplight and a stop sign and drove more than 25 mph over the speed limit, according to the criminal complaint.
Stop sticks — meant to puncture tires — were deployed near the Cedar Rapids Police Department to end the chase and Taylor was taken into custody.
Crews are tearing down a vacant warehouse off First Avenue and 29th Street NE that sustained damage in the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds, but owner Rick Stickle has no immediate plans for repurposing the property.
Stickle, owner of Midwest Third Party Logistics, said it would have cost about $5 million to replace the warehouse’s roof, which was damaged in the August 2020 storm — the costliest thunderstorm in U.S. history. The building at 308 29th Street NE also sustained structural damage.
“We collectively decided talking with the insurance company that we would settle the claim for somewhat less than that and we wouldn't replace the roof, we'd dismantle the building,” Stickle said.
