In brief: Six unaccounted for after Maryland house fire

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Six people remain unaccounted for after a fierce fire gutted a 16,000-square-foot mansion just outside Maryland’s capital early Monday, a fire official said.

The fire was reported about 3:30 a.m. by an alarm monitoring company and a neighbor who saw flames at the mansion near Annapolis, said Capt. Russ Davies, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

“From the family, we know who’s unaccounted for,” Davies said, though he declined to say who specifically could not be located. “If you look at the damage, you know, it would not be a stretch to think that if there were occupants that they did not survive the fire.”

Earlier, Davies had said the home’s occupants might have been out of town.

Wandering toddler killed by train

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. – A 2-year-old western Kentucky boy who was wandering around with a dog a couple of blocks from home has died after they both were hit by a train.

Police spokesman Paul Ray in Hopkinsville said Trayton Joiner was pronounced dead Monday morning shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

The CSX train’s engineer contacted police. Ray said when officers arrived, they had to go door to door to find the child’s home. Ray said the boy’s mother was located and taken to the hospital where her son was being treated.

Ray said police are still trying to determine why the child was by himself and don’t know if the boy may have been following the dog.

Ray said the dog was hurt and is being treated at an animal clinic.

NYC settles suit over chokehold

NEW YORK – The city of New York has agreed to pay a Brooklyn man $75,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming he was choked and unable to breathe during a 2013 encounter with police.

A federal judge approved the settlement last week, and New York City Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said that “based on an evaluation of the case, it was determined that the settlement was in the best interests of the city.”

Attorney Jeffrey Rothman said Monday the settlement for Kevin Dennis-Palmer Sr., 28, was “another example of a black man choked and beaten down into the ground.”

The lawsuit was filed in May before the death last summer of Eric Garner, whose treatment by police and a grand jury decision not to indict any officers prompted nationwide protests.

Garner, a large man suffering from asthma, died after a New York police officer placed him in an apparent chokehold during an arrest in July for selling loose cigarettes. A widely seen video showed Garner gasping: “I can’t breathe,” as he was wrestled to the ground in Staten Island by police.

Rothman said the circumstances were similar to the Garner case.

Brown fraternities disciplined

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown University officials on Monday announced that two fraternities on the Ivy League campus have been sanctioned for hosting unregistered parties last fall, including one where two students reported drinking punch laced with a date-rape drug.

School leaders announced the discipline against Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Chi in a statement to the media and a letter to members of the university community. Brown officials said both fraternities created environments that “facilitated” sexual misconduct. No members of the fraternities are accused by the school of sexual misconduct, and none of them face criminal charges.

Virginia governor thrown s horse

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was hospitalized Monday in Richmond with complications from being tossed by a horse and breaking seven ribs during a holiday trip to Africa with his family, a spokesman said.

McAuliffe was expected to spend the night at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and recover for two or three days, spokesman Brian Coy said.

Doctors had expected the ribs to heal on their own, but medical monitoring identified increased fluid around his lungs, Coy said. The medical procedure was intended to drain the fluid, he said.

First lady Dorothy McAuliffe said in a written statement that her husband was “resting comfortably” after doctors successfully completed a procedure to drain fluid from his chest cavity.

The McAuliffe family went to Africa to visit the governor’s daughter, who works for a nonprofit, when McAuliffe was tossed by a horse in Tanzania around Christmas Day.