A registered sex offender with the word “Sacrifice” tattooed on his face is being sought in Florida for a horrific rape in which authorities said the victim was mutilated.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that deputies were searching for 54-year-old Bryce Whitehead — described as a “brutal rapist” — in connection with a violent sex assault that took place in Orlando Saturday.
According to a redacted incident report obtained by the station ClickOrlando, the victim was approached by Whitehead while walking near a strip club off Pine Hills Road near North Lane and got into his car willingly.
Whitehead stopped off at a 7-Eleven store to buy water and then drove to a different location, where he pulled over and walked around to the passenger door where the woman was sitting.
The report stated that the ex-convict ordered the woman to get out of the car at knifepoint and then raped her after she refused to have consensual sex with him.
In the course of the attack, Whitehead also allegedly mutilated the victim, although officials did not elaborate on her injuries.
Bruce Whitehead is wanted in connection with a violent sex assault that took place in Orlando on Saturday.Orange County Sheriff’s Office
After Whitehead fled, deputies were called to the scene and found the victim “scared and shocked.” She told the officers she thought Whitehead was going to kill her.
The woman was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center and was expected to recover, officials said.
According to Orange County authorities and information available on the Duval County Sex Offender Registry’s website, Whitehead was convicted of kidnapping, armed sexual battery and first-degree attempted murder in 1986 and spent 20 years in prison.
The victim met Whitehead near a strip club off Pine Hills Road near North Lane.Google Maps
Whitehead has the word “Sacrifice” written in gothic style tattooed across his forehead, along with several teardrop tattoos on his left cheek.
“His tattoos are unmistakable. If you spot him, call 911 immediately,” the sheriff’s office urged the public.
A Florida police officer was given three doses of Narcan after she was exposed to fentanyl and reportedly overdosed during a traffic stop Tuesday.
Shocking video shows the moment Tavares Officer Courtney Bannick was administered the opioid overdose-reversing drug as she lay motionless on the side of a road just after midnight.
Bannick found narcotics — which police believe contained the deadly drug — in a rolled-up dollar bill inside the vehicle she and the other officers pulled over, according to local reports.
Shortly after, she began struggling to breathe.
Another officer at the scene heard her choking and breathless over her radio and walked over. He found her drifting “in and out of consciousness and needing immediate medical attention,” the Tavares Police Department said in a release obtained by Click Orlando.
A police officer in Florida was exposed to fentanyl and reportedly overdosed during a traffic stop Tuesday.Tavares Police Department
That officer and two others laid Bannick on the ground and quickly administered Narcan. She was brought back and was talking before she again lost consciousness and appeared to have stopped breathing, the body cam footage released by the department shows.
“She was completely lifeless. She looks deceased in these videos,” Tavares Police Det. Courtney Sullivan told Fox 35 Orlando. “So she’s very thankful today.”
In total, the cops gave Bannick three doses of Narcan before an ambulance arrived and took her to an area hospital. She is expected to make a full recovery.
The officer was administered three doses of narcan.Tavares Police Department
The officers believe Bannick, who was wearing gloves when handling the narcotics, may have been exposed due to the wind blowing the drugs into her system. The officers planned to test the substance at the station and not at the scene because it was so windy.
“I have done this one-hundred times before the same way. It only takes one time and a minimal amount,” Bannick said. “I’m thankful I wasn’t alone and had immediate help.”
She requested that the alarming video be released in order to spread awareness of the dangers of fentanyl.
Barrick is expected to make a full recovery.Tavares Police Department
“If the other officers weren’t there, there’s a very high chance and probability that today would be different and that we would be wearing our thin blue line – the straps that go over our badges,” Sullivan said.
The individuals who were pulled over by the officers and allegedly had the drugs in their possession are facing possible felony charges. Their names have not been released because they haven’t been charged yet, the department said.
Hurricane Nicole made landfall early Thursday along the east coast of Florida. The storm was already battering a large area of the storm-weary state with strong winds, dangerous storm surge and heavy rain, officials said.
The rare November hurricane had already led officials to shut down airports and theme parks and order evacuations that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Authorities warned that Nicole’s storm surge could further erode many beaches hit by Hurricane Ian in September. The sprawling storm is then forecast to head into Georgia and the Carolinas later Thursday and Friday, dumping heavy rain across the region.
Nicole was a Category 1 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph early Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It was centered about 30 miles east-southeast of Fort Pierce and was moving toward the west-northwest near 14 mph.
Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 485 miles from the center in some directions. Nicole’s center is expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday and into the evening, and into the Carolinas on Friday.
A few tornadoes will be possible through early Thursday across east-central to northeast Florida, the weather service said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible, along with renewed river rises on the St. Johns River, across the Florida Peninsula on Thursday. Heavy rainfall from this system will spread northward across portions of the southeast, eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday.
Large swells generated by Nicole will affect the northwestern Bahamas, the east coast of Florida, and much of the southeastern United States coast over the next few days.
Nicole is expected to weaken while moving across Florida and the southeastern United States through Friday, and it is likely to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday afternoon.
Hurricane Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 storm.AP
Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island, having made landfall just hours earlier on Great Abaco island as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. It is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.
For storm-weary Floridians, it is only the third November hurricane to hit their shores since recordkeeping began in 1853. The previous ones were the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.
Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, was in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated and there was no sign of evacuation by Wednesday afternoon.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has warned that the wind is the most dangerous threat from Nicole.AP
There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.
Officials in Daytona Beach Shores deemed unsafe at least a half dozen, multi-story, coastal residential buildings already damaged by Hurricane Ian and now threatened by Nicole. At some locations, authorities went door-to-door telling people to grab their possessions and leave.
Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort announced they likely would not open as scheduled Thursday.
Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would suspend operations. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., also closed. Farther south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport experienced some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that winds were the biggest concern and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.
Forty-Five Florida counties were under a state of emergency declaration as of Thursday morning.AP
“It will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said of the storm’s expected landing.
Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.
Forty-five of Florida’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency declaration.
Warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline that was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state. — damage that many are still dealing with.
Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said the storm would affect a large part of the state.
“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,” he said.
Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still responding to those in need from Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian brought storm surge of up to 13 feet in late September, causing widespread destruction.
An American Airlines flight was forced to make an urgent return to Miami International Airport on Wednesday night after a passenger’s carry-on bag caused a worrying chemical odor.
Just before 9 p.m. local time, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units were dispatched to the airport after an “issue” onboard the aircraft traveling to Barbados.
The flight “returned to MIA this evening due to a chemical odor in the cabin caused by the contents of a customer’s carry-on luggage,” an American Airlines spokesperson told The Post.
The aircraft is seen parked in the penalty box after the flight had to make a return back to Miami International Airport on Oct, 12, 2022. CBS Miami
“The aircraft landed safely and without incident, and customers deplaned normally.”
“All customers were offered hotel accommodations and the flight is now scheduled to redepart tomorrow at 9 a.m.,” the statement concluded.
The airline did not confirm how many passengers were abroad the aircraft.
Once American Airlines Flight 338 landed, it was taken to the penalty box — an area where aircraft can park safely without blocking taxiways. Passengers were immediately asked to leave the plane.
Some passengers said they were feeling sick as a result of the odor, and had to be taken to the hospital, CBS reports. The airline declined to comment on this.
The Post has reached out to Miami International Airport and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department for comment.
Video footage posted by the site shows a stream of sparks flying as the plane, which was carrying 256 passengers, gains altitude.
The Boeing 777-200 spewed the sparks as it “entered a holding pattern about 70 (nautical miles) southwest of New York and returned to land safely” 88 minutes later.
The Orlando amusement park ride that a 14-year-old Missouri teen fell to his death from earlier this year will be taken down, the park announced Thursday.
Tyre Sampson plummeted from the “Orlando Free Fall” at ICON Park as it was travelling down its 430-foot descent at a speed of 75 mph on March 24. Tyre, who was staying with a friend’s family during the trip, died after being rushed to a local hospital.
There is no timeline for when the ride will be taken down, but the park said it will “be determined by the approvals of all involved parties and regulatory entities.”
“Tyre’s death is a tragedy that we will never forget,” said ICON Park.
An autopsy found that the teen was nearly 100 pounds over the ride’s weight limit of 287 pounds, allowing him to slip out of the safety harness and to the pavement below. The seat was still in the locked position after the ride came to a rest, staffers told authorities.
Tyre suffered internal injuries along with trauma to his head, neck and torso. The ride has been closed since the tragedy.
His family immediately asked the Florida park to dismantle the ride, which opened in December 2021 and claims to be the country’s tallest free-standing drop tower.
An autopsy found that Tyre was nearly 100 pounds over the weight limit of the ride. AP
Tyre fell when the ride was nearly halfway down its 430-foot descent. AP
Tyre’s family asked the ride to be taken down immediately after the teen’s death. AP
ICON Park will be removing the ride that resulted in teenager Tyre Sampson’s March death.Facebook/Vanessa Rivera
“We are devastated by Tyre’s death. We have listened to the wishes of Tyre’s family and the community, and have made the decision to take down the FreeFall,” said Ritchie Armstrong, who owns the tragic freefall ride.
Armstrong’s company, Orlando Slingshot, will honor the teenager by creating a scholarship in his name, he said.
Details on the scholarship will be released after consultation with Tyre’s family, the statement said, but Armstrong insinuated it would extend to the classroom and the football field, where Tyre was known to spend much of his free time.
A 21-year-old Florida woman was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly stabbing her sister to death after learning she had been flirting with her boyfriend.
Fatiha Marzan reportedly killed her younger sister, 20-year-old Sayma Marzan, at 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 26 in the bedroom they shared in the family’s Orlando home, according to local reports.
Fatiha had just found out that her long-distance boyfriend of five years and her sister had been flirting with one another in messages exchanged through a video game they played together, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
She allegedly decided to kill Sayma after she learned her boyfriend had told Sayma he loved her. She purchased a “dagger style knife set” from Amazon two weeks before the stabbing, investigators said.
She hid the knives in a closet and waited until her family members went to bed before pulling out a knife and allegedly stabbing her sister in the heart three to four times in the bedroom they shared, police said.
Fatiha called 911 hours later at 7:30 p.m. and reportedly said she stabbed her sister. Deputies responded and found Sayma dead inside the home.
Fatiha confessed to stabbing Sayma three to four times, specifically in the heart, authorities said.
She is being held in Orange County Jail without bond.
Schnatter, whose net worth was pegged by Forbes at around $1 billion in 2017, is the owner of an expansive real estate portfolio that includes some 20 properties throughout the country, including a $6 million condominium in Naples, Fla., according to Louisville Business First.
The mogul told OAN on Tuesday that his property in Naples suffered damage from the massive Category 4 storm which left dozens dead after bringing record rainfall, flooding and storm surge to Florida.
In a viral clip circulating online, the cable network noted that Schnatter, 60, was speaking from one of his other homes in Utah.
“Of course, you’re currently in Utah but we’re seeing the images of your home in Naples,” the anchor, Stella Inger Escobedo, said during the interview with Schnatter.
“It appears it is completely under water.”
“Just seeing all those images — it’s heartbreaking,” Escobedo added. “Can you tell us the aftermath in your neighborhood?”
Schnatter said the extent of the damage depicted in the images “gives you a little bit of perspective…[as to] how devastating this storm is.”
He then added that he wasn’t “worried about myself because I have the resources and the team and institutional knowledge” to get through the crisis.
“You just can’t imagine how bad this is and my heart goes out to the folks in Florida,” Schnatter said.
“Yeah, I lost a home, but they’ve lost everything.”
Schnatter shared images of the damage to his home in Naples, Fla., which was caused by Hurricane Ian.OANN
Schnatter and OAN were ridiculed on social media for the segment.
One Twitter user sarcastically remarked: “I’m not worried because I have 600 million and can afford proper insurance. OAN is ridiculous.”
Others also mocked OAN for misspelling the word “hurricane” in the chyron before quickly fixing the typo.
“Well it’s a hurrican, not a hurrican’t,” tweeted one Twitter user.
But others defended Schnatter. They noted that he acknowledged he would be better off than most people in Florida who have had their properties destroyed and lives upended.
“Idk seems like u took this pretty outta context here,” one Twitter user wrote.
“Isn’t he sorta admitting that because he’s rich he’ll be just fine and that people that aren’t Papa John will not be?”
Schnatter, whose net worth was valued by Forbes at $1 billion back in 2017, is reported to own many properties across the country.OANN
Another Twitter user wrote: “i mean at least hes being honest, he could’ve pretended it affects him a lot more.”
At the time Schnatter filed for divorce from his wife in 2019, he owned at least three properties in Anchorage, Ky., not far from Louisville. The properties, which totaled more than 100 acres of land, were managed by a limited liability co-owned by Schnatter.
At least 70 people have been confirmed dead in Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian.ZUMAPRESS.com
After he was forced out as CEO in 2018, he started selling a large chunk of his 31% ownership stake in Papa John’s. In total, he pocketed more than $500 million from the sale of his shares in the company that he built into the fourth-largest pizza chain in the country.
At least 71 Floridians have been confirmed dead as a result of the hurricane, according to authorities.
About 520,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without electricity as of Monday evening, down from a peak of 2.6 million. But that is still nearly the same amount of customers in all of Rhode Island.
A Sept. 29 estimate from CoreLogic found that wind and storm surge damages from Ian could total between $28 billion and $47 billion, according to CNBC.
The US Coast Guard is organizing a “waterborne operation” to rescue residents of Pine Island, Florida who were cut off from the mainland when Hurricane Ian knocked out its only bridge.
Paramedics and volunteers have already removed some of those stranded there, but are asking the remaining residents to arrive at the Pine Island Fire Department Sunday.
They will be taken by truck to Yucatan Waterfront then transported via boat across the Matlacha Pass.
Pine Island, the largest barrier island off Flordia’s Gulf Coast, suffered some of the worst Hurricane Ian damage, along with the rest of Lee County.
Residents described the horror of being trapped in their island homes as water levels rose to 10 feet in some areas, causing waves to crash in the streets.
Hurricane Ian caused water to split the Florida barrier island into two separate islands.REUTERS
Aerial photo of Pine Island before Hurricane Ian. REUTERS
Aerial photo of Pine Island after Hurricane Ian. REUTERS
Many people who stayed during the storm expected to die, and one elderly man considered taking his own life if help didn’t arrive soon enough, a neighbor said.
At least 35 people have died in Lee County, nearly half of all who have died in Hurricane Ian. An unknown number of people are still missing.
Pine Island’s neighbors, Sanibel and Captiva, suffered a similar fate. The barrier islands were also connected to the Florida mainland by just one causeway, which was severed in multiple places after Ian pummeled the coast.
All three islands are without electricity or water.
A Florida man became the darling of Hurricane Ian after he went viral in a video showing him rescuing a stranded cat surrounded by a rising flood.
Mike Ross, 29, is seen making his way to the frightened feline sitting atop an air-conditioning unit at the side of a house in Bonita Springs as the water comes gushing.
“My boyfriend saving a cat from flood waters near Bonita Beach,” Megan Cruz Scavo said in a tweet accompanying the heart-rending footage.
“Look at Michael saving the kitty. Awww,” Ross’ mom, Marybeth, is heard saying as she filmed the rescue.
Ross told the Washington Post that he noticed the “terrified” orange and white cat about 2 p.m. Wednesday after he sought shelter in his parents’ home while his house became submerged at the height of the storm.
Mike Ross, 29, saves stranded cat cowering from rushing waters amid Hurricane Ian in Bonita Springs, Florida.Mary Beth Ross via StoryfulHis mother captured heart-rending video, saying, “Look at Michael saving the kitty. Awww.”Mary Beth Ross via Storyful
“The storm surge had rushed up quite a bit at that point,” he told the newspaper.
Ross went viral for saving the soggy kitty and gained the attention of women who gushed over his heroics.Mary Beth Ross via Storyful
As of Thursday morning, the video of selfless cat saver has racked up more than 2.8 million views – as well as a flood of messages from love-struck women.
Adoring fans on social media view him as quite a catch.Mary Beth Ross via Storyful
Florida law enforcement officials arrested two suspects this week after intercepting packages containing 87 pounds of marijuana at a UPS in a St. Petersburg suburb last year, according to reports.
Bennie Neely, 41, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of trafficking in cannabis, a first-degree felony, and importation of marijuana, a third-degree felony, according to court records.
Corey Jovan Brown, 38, was arrested on the same charges on Friday.
Police originally located two large boxes containing 87 pounds of “marijuana plant material” on Feb. 13, 2021, at a UPS location in Pinellas Park, according to WFLA.
The two men were identified as suspects through the tracking numbers on the shipments, according to the local news outlet.
Both suspects have since been released on bond, according to court records.
Florida police arrested two suspects in connection to 87 pounds of marijuana that was found at a UPS facility last year.Jill Connelly/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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