In brief: Ferguson grand jury barricaded as decision approaches

FERGUSON, Mo. – Crews erected barricades Saturday around the building where a grand jury has been considering whether to indict the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, even as a grand jury decision seemed unlikely this weekend.

Tension has been mounting in Ferguson and elsewhere in the St. Louis area in recent days, with many speculating that the grand jury’s decision would be announced today. That seemed increasingly unlikely by Saturday afternoon.

Downtown STL Inc., a St. Louis civic group that promotes downtown businesses, told members in an email Saturday that the grand jury will reconvene Monday to continue deliberating whether charges are warranted against Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Brown.

The email did not explain how the group knew the information, and a spokeswoman declined comment.

Wilson is white and Brown, who was unarmed, was black. There have been many demonstrations in the months since Brown’s death, including some that were violent.

Gunman kills deputy who responds to fire

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A man who had made previous threats against police set his house on fire Saturday and ambushed the first sheriff’s deputy who responded, fatally shooting the deputy and wounding another before he was killed by a police officer who lives nearby, a law enforcement official said.

The man’s name and address had been entered into a law enforcement computer system because of previous threats, but the 911 dispatcher who entered the fire call put in the address of a neighbor who reported the blaze, so the alert wasn’t activated and the Leon County deputy who responded first had no warning, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

The gunman was hiding outside the house when the deputy approached about 10:15 a.m., the official said. He shot the deputy from behind, shot him again after he fell and then took the deputy’s gun.

The gunman, who lived at the end of a cul-de-sac, then shot another deputy, who escaped serious injury because of a bulletproof vest. A Tallahassee police officer getting ready to work the Florida State University football game heard the shots, ran outside and fatally shot the gunman, who was hiding as other deputies and officers approached, the official said.

6.7-level quake hits Japan, injures 39

TOKYO — A strong earthquake in the mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics destroyed more than half a dozen homes in a ski resort town and injured at least 39 people, officials said.

The magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck Saturday near Nagano city shortly after 10 p.m. at a depth of 6 miles, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake’s magnitude at 6.2. Since the quake occurred inland, there was no possibility of a tsunami.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the affected areas. All of Japan’s nuclear plants are offline following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami in 2011 that sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdown.

Thirty people were injured, at least two seriously, the Federal Disaster Management Agency said today.

“We are trying to assess the situation as quickly as possible, and we’ll do our utmost for the rescue of the injured people,” Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters.

One of the harder-hit areas appeared to be Hakuba, which hosted events in the 1998 games. At least seven homes collapsed, and other buildings were also severely damaged, local and national disaster agencies said. Seventeen people were injured.

Man strips in airport, falls through ceiling

BOSTON — A man stripped inside a women’s restroom at Logan International Airport on Saturday, climbed into a dropped ceiling, crashed through it and landed on the floor, then ran out of the restroom and viciously assaulted an elderly passer-by while he was still naked and bleeding, state police said.

Cameron Shenk, 26, of Boston, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, mayhem, assault and battery on a person over 60, assault and battery on a police officer, lewd and lascivious conduct and malicious destruction to property.

The bizarre behavior began shortly before noon when a woman using a restroom located before the security checkpoint in Terminal C reported that a naked man had fallen through the ceiling and landed in the stall area, startling her, state police spokesman David Procopio said.

The man, later identified as Shenk, then fled the restroom and assaulted an 84-year-old man he encountered, biting the man’s ear and attempting to choke him with his own cane, Procopio said.