Breaking News Alerts

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A 51-year-old Auburn Avenue man was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for a mental evaluation last night after refusing to put down a rifle while on his porch and at one point putting the barrel end into his own mouth, threatening suicide and asking cops to shoot him, New Smyrna Beach police said.

The SWAT team was called in and negotiators were called out after the gunman, identified as Duane Henry Grove refused to put the rifle down after police responded to an 8:36 p.m. 911 call of a male threatening to commit suicide.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Carol Kelley, principal of New Smyrna Beach High School, is out of work indefinitely after undergoing surgery March 3 for a broken pelvis and hip suffered in an earlier car accident, according to the school's Web site.

Assistant Principal Teresa Marcks is serving as acting principal while the 62-year-old Kelley recuperates from the Feb. 28 accident.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The way City Commissioner William Hathaway sees it, nothing will be lost by allowing City Attorney Frank Gummey and interim City Manager Khalid Resheidat to meet next week with members of the Angler's Club before the city spends money on outside counsel to investigate the legitimacy of a longstanding lease agreement for prime public waterfront property.
"If it blows up in our face, we re-group," Hathaway said earlier tonight.

Courtesy photos. Stephen G. Brady, 58, was found shot to death Sept. 22, a victim of suicide, but whether he suffocated his 56-year-old wife, Pamela Brady, with a plastic bag in their New Smyrna Beach home or whether she did it herself, remains a mystery. The deaths came after he abruptly resigned from his job as a lawyer with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after a confrontation wth the husband of a co-worker he was having an affair with turned violent.

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera King. New Smyrna Beach City Attorney Frank Gummey told the City Commission it is his opinion that the city's 99-year lease with the Angler's Club is legally binding, regardless of whether it once had discriminatory membership policies and is not paying current fair-market value to use the municipal waterfront property.

OAK HILL -- A dead biker was found just before 6 a.m. in a wooded area just south of the Oak Hill city limits, according to the authorities.

A search was under way three hours earlier after Ronald Courtney, 47, of New Smyrna Beach reportedly called a friend on his cell phone to report he had crashed and suffered a broken leg.

His motorcycle was found in 6 inches of water in a ditch, which eventually led searchers to his body in woods.

So far, two bikers have died since Bike Week got under way Friday, but the Florida Highway Patrol has not yet determined whether these initial fatalities are related to the 10-day motorcycle rally centered in Volusia County.

David Pitt, 61, of Oviedo, was killed Sunday night while riding westbound on Interstate 4 in Volusia County about three miles west of the International Speedway Boulevard exit, when he suddenly fell off his 2006 Harley-Davidson and was run over by a car behind him, the highway patrol said today.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Khalid Resheidat was appointed interim city manager tonight after the City Commission removed John Hagood from his post.