U.S.

The stabbing victim was in stable condition

(NEW HAVEN, Conn.)—Police say a Yale University student jumped to his death from the ninth floor of an off-campus apartment building moments after stabbing a fellow student.

New Haven police say it happened around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at an apartment complex across the street from the Ivy League campus.

Officials say the suspect fell six stories onto a third-floor terrace. His name is being withheld pending notification of his family.

Police say 21-year-old stabbing victim Alexander Michaud is in stable condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Officials say the men were acquaintances and Yale students.

A Yale spokesman had no immediate comment.

Authorities haven’t released details of what happened before the stabbing and jump.

The visitors' center was evacuated as well

(WASHINGTON)—Police briefly evacuated hundreds of workers and tourists from the U.S. Capitol and its adjacent visitors’ center on Tuesday in a problem officials tentatively blamed on a faulty exhaust fan in a visitor center kitchen.

Within an hour after alarms sounded, employees returned to the building. Tourists were readmitted shortly after that.

Lawmakers are in recess this week for the weeklong Memorial Day break.

The U.S. Capitol Police told congressional workers in an email that two alarms were triggered in the visitors’ center, which they said was apparently caused by “a known problem with environmental controls with the kitchen exhaust fan.” It provided no additional detail.

Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, said there were no signs of smoke or fire. An email sent later to House staff by the chamber’s sergeant at arms office said the triggering of alarms “was most likely caused by smoke in the kitchen; there was no fire.”

The evacuation occurred two days after a bomb squad destroyed a pressure cooker found in an unattended, “suspicious” vehicle on the National Mall near the Capitol and the vehicle’s Virginia owner was arrested. Almost six weeks earlier, a Florida man was arrested after he flew his gyrocopter through restricted air space and onto the Capitol grounds.

In Tuesday’s incident, police cleared the East Lawn and closed First Street between the Capitol and the Library of Congress until the buildings were reopened.

Denise Grandits of Buffalo, New York, said she and 70 eighth-graders were touring the Capitol and heard the alarms. She said the guide escorted them out of the building.

“We just walked. It was pretty calm,” she said.

According to the police email, officials initially thought one of the two triggered alarms was in the Capitol and they began evacuating that building.

In a moment of confusion, police soon advised people in the Capitol that they could remain inside because the alarms were not coming from that building. They reversed themselves again minutes later and resumed evacuating the Capitol.

The police email said once officials determined both alarms were in the visitor center, they decided to continue emptying the Capitol “to ensure staff and members did not receive conflicting information.”

Her husband died before they were rescued

(WARNER SPRINGS, Calif.)—An elderly husband and wife stranded for two weeks in Southern California’s high desert ate oranges and a pie and drank rainwater that they collected in cups, but the 79-year-old husband died at some point before the couple’s rescue, authorities said Monday.

Off-roaders found Cecil Knutson and his wife, Dianna Bedwell, 68, Sunday afternoon near a Boy Scouts camp on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation about 65 miles northeast of San Diego, sheriff’s Lt. Ken Nelson said. Bedwell wasn’t able to tell authorities when her husband had died, but an autopsy to be conducted by Tuesday could help answer that question, he said.

Bedwell told authorities the couple was trying to take a shortcut and got lost in the rugged area, where their 2014 white Hyundai Sonata was obscured by trees and surrounded by brush, making it invisible to helicopters that were conducting aerial searches, Nelson said.

Knutson’s body was near the car and Bedwell was inside the vehicle, he said.

“They were really off the beaten path. We were really surprised that the vehicle they were driving, a sedan, was even able to get out there,” he said Monday. “It was so rural that it took two weeks for even off-roaders to find them.”

The family asked for privacy in a statement posted on a Facebook page established to help with the search.

“Please continue to keep the family in your prayers,” it read.

But Bedwell’s son spoke briefly to the Orange County Register.

“I’m just so concerned with my mom right now,” Robert Acosta told the newspaper. “To be in the middle of nowhere for two weeks is a lot given her age.”

Bedwell remained hospitalized and hadn’t spoken with authorities beyond an initial 10-minute interview.

The husband and wife, who were diabetic, were last seen on surveillance footage leaving the Valley View Casino in Valley Center, about 25 miles west of the wilderness camp, on May 10. Authorities said the two were planning on going to their son’s home in the Palm Springs area for a Mother’s Day dinner but they didn’t show up there or return to their Orange County home in Fullerton.

Knutson and Bedwell were both retired school bus drivers and were married for more than 25 years, the Register reported.

One additional person was wounded

(GRAND FORKS, N.D.)—Two people, including the gunman, died and another person was injured in a shooting early Tuesday at a Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Grand Forks, North Dakota, police said.

The shooter was the only person with a gun, and no police officers fired a weapon, according to Lt. Derik Zimmel.

“We do not believe there is any further risk to the public,” Zimmel said. He would not go as far as to say the gunman shot himself and provided no details of what led to the shooter’s death.

One other person was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening, Zimmel said. Altru Hospital did not immediately release any information.

Police did not provide information about the gunman or victims. Grand Forks Air Force Base issued a statement saying an airman was involved in the shooting, but did not elaborate.

Officers responded to reports of gunshots a few minutes after 1 a.m.

Andy Legg, who was in the store at the time of the shooting, told WDAZ-TV that he heard “popping sounds” shortly before authorities herded him and other customers to a safe section of the store. He said when the group later left the building they passed a Wal-Mart employee who was covered in blood.

A SWAT team that responded to the scene searched a car in the parking lot but found no threats.

“There are several different layers to ensuring a scene is safe,” Zimmel said.

Police were investigating to determine a motive in the shooting, he said.

The Wal-Mart is one of two in the northeastern North Dakota city of about 55,000 people. The store’s website says it is open 24 hours. Calls to the store were referred to the company’s headquarters, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zimmel did not have information on how many workers and customers were in the store at the time.