VIDEO: Kong Flu: Gorillas And Orangutans Get COVID Vax

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VIDEO: Kong Flu: Gorillas And Orangutans Get COVID Vax

By Peter Barker

Though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is low, nearly 700 zoos across the country have received an experimental vaccine to help protect mammals from the virus.

The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana, has begun vaccinating its gorillas and orangutans against COVID-19, according to a statement from the zoo on Oct. 12.

Bob MacLean, Audubon’s senior veterinarian, said: “It’s very important to us to protect our animals against COVID-19 and the Delta variant.”

The vaccine has been authorized for use “on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Agriculture and the appropriate state veterinarians,” the zoo said.

Zoetis, described as an animal health company, is a former Pfizer subsidiary. It donated 11,000 doses of its vaccine to more than 70 zoos in the United States.

“Zoetis’ COVID-19 vaccine is uniquely formulated for animal species. Although the virus — or antigen — is the same as in human vaccines, vaccines for animals vary based on the carrier … that is used,” Zoetis said. “The unique combination of antigen and carrier ensures safety and efficacy for the species in which a vaccine is used.”

MacLean said the zoo “has been evaluating the scientific literature on animal susceptibility throughout the pandemic, and we are eager to protect our animals.”

After administering the vaccine to gorillas and orangutans, the Audubon Zoo said it will then move on to cats and mustelids such as otters.

Gorillas and orangutans at the Audubon Zoo are first in line for the donated animal-specific COVID vaccines. (Audubon Nature Institute/Zenger)

“All the animals receiving the vaccine at the zoo and aquarium voluntarily participate in their own health care through positive reinforcement training and are not put under anesthesia to receive their vaccination,” said the Audubon Nature Institute. “They have been trained to sit, stand, or present their bodies during regular health checks by animal care and veterinary staff.”

All staff working in proximity with the animals have been following personal protection protocols since the start of the pandemic, the zoo said.

“This proactive measure is an additional layer of protection. The health of the animals in our care, staff and guests is our top priority,” MacLean said.

“Although there are no long-term studies since the virus emerged less than two years ago, development studies by Zoetis demonstrated the vaccine to be safe and have a reasonable expectation of efficacy in mounting an immune response in animals” MacLean said.

In 2020, a dog in Hong Kong “weakly” tested positive fo COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. Three western lowland gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park tested positive for the coronavirus in January, the Agriculture Department reported.

Edited by Judith Isacoff and Kristen Butler



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VIDEO: NASA Reveals Historic Plan To Bring Mars Samples Back To Earth

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VIDEO: NASA Reveals Historic Plan To Bring Mars Samples Back To Earth

By Peter Barker

Animated footage of what the U.S. space agency NASA describes as “one of the most ambitious endeavors in spaceflight history” shows how rock samples collected on Mars will be returned to Earth.

“Multiple spacecraft, multiple launches and dozens of government agencies,” NASA says, will be part of the effort involving the Perseverance Mars rover transferring samples from the “Red Planet” to a lander. Its robotic arm would pack the samples into the tip of a rocket that would take them to an orbiter, which would make the long journey back to Earth.

“Returning a sample from Mars has been a priority for the planetary science community since the 1980s, and the potential opportunity to finally realize this goal has unleashed a torrent of creativity,” Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in an Oct. 12 statement.

Scientists on Earth will use cutting-edge technology in the best-equipped labs to study the samples, something that is not possible on Mars.

“I have dreamed of having Mars samples to analyze since I was a graduate student,” Meenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return Program, said.

“The collection of these well-documented samples will eventually allow us to analyze them in the best laboratories here on Earth once they are returned,” she said.

The mission will involve several firsts aimed at seeing whether life exists anywhere else in the solar system. “I’ve been working my whole career for the opportunity to answer this question,” Daniel Glavin, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said.

The Mars Sample Return mission will first involve a European Space Agency sample-fetch rover to be sent to Mars later this decade to pick up samples collected by Perseverance.

One of the main hurdles facing engineers planning the return mission is how to seal the titanium tubes holding the samples without destroying them.

The first cored sample of Mars rock is visible (at center) inside a titanium sample collection tube in this image from the Sampling and Caching System Camera) of NASA’s Perseverance rover. (NASA,JPL-Caltech/Zenger)

“Among our biggest technical challenges right now is that inches away from metal that’s melting at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit we have to keep these extraordinary Mars samples below the hottest temperature they might have experienced on Mars, which is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Brendan Feehan, Goddard systems engineer for the system that will capture, contain and deliver the samples to Earth on board the European Space Agency’s orbiter.

Feehan and his team are developing a system that will allow them to limit the heat flow during the sealing process. They also plan to insulate the samples and use conductors to disperse the heat away from the precious payload.

“Initial results from the testing of our brazing solution have affirmed that we’re on the right path,” Feehan said.

NASA also said that it is possible living organisms could be returned to the samples that potentially pose a biohazard risk, and all precautions are being taken.

Edited by Richard Pretorius and Kristen Butler



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‘Colonial’ Columbus Monument In Mexico City To Be Replaced By Statue Of Indigenous Woman

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‘Colonial’ Columbus Monument In Mexico City To Be Replaced By Statue Of Indigenous Woman

By Peter Barker

Authorities in Mexico City have announced that a Christopher Columbus monument will be replaced by a sculpture of an indigenous woman known as “The Young Woman of Amajac.”

Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Mexico City government, announced on Oct. 13 that a replica of the statue of ‘La Joven de Amajac’ (The Young Woman of Amajac) will replace the statue of Christopher Columbus on Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main avenues in the Mexican capital.

The Columbus statue was removed from Paseo de la Reforma for maintenance last year, but at the time no announcement was made that it would never return.

General view of the pedestal where the statue of Christopher Columbus was placed at Paseo de la Reforma avenue on September 07, 2021, in Mexico City, Mexico. Placed at Paseo de la Reforma in 1877, it remained there for 143 years until October 2020, when it was moved to be restored. (Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

The new monument, which will be 19.6 feet high, was chosen after a petition gathered over 5,000 signatures from indigenous women in several towns, and is based on a statue found earlier this year that is over 500 years old.

Sheinbaum said in the statement posted on Twitter: “We want to say that it represents women, but in particular indigenous women.”

She went on to say that the only way to truly understand the history of Mexico is to understand the role that the indigenous groups played in its development well before the arrival of Columbus.

She said that this year marks seven centuries since the founding of the culture of Tenochtitlan (the city that Hernán Cortés ‘conquered’ on the spot that is now Mexico City), 500 years since its fall (to the Spaniards) that set off 500 years of resistance, and 200 years of Mexican independence.

She said that it is important for the city to reconsider its history as told through its statues and street names. “After the Colony, unfortunately a history of classism and racism remained, and the most discriminated group has been indigenous women.”

The sculpture of ‘La joven de Amajac’, a larger replica of which will replace a Christopher Columbus sculpture on Paseo de la Reforma avenue in Mexico City, Mexico. (Mexico City Secretariat of Culture/Zenger)

The original sculpture of ‘La Joven de Amajac’ was discovered by farmers on Jan. 1 this year, in the town of Alamo Temapache in Veracruz, and is currently on display at the National Museum of Anthropology.

Diego Prieto, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said in Sheinbaum’s statement that the statue represents a woman from the upper class of the Amajac group in what is today the state of Veracruz, and was sculpted between 1450 and 1521.

It is 6.7 feet tall, 24 inches wide, and 9.8 inches thick, made of limestone, and depicts a woman covered in jewelry.

Sheinbaum said the location of the statue is one of the most emblematic spots in the city, the famous Paseo de la Reforma.

Colonial-era statues have been the source of controversy recently in several countries including the U.K., Canada and the U.S.

Arguments to have them removed have included historical oppression, while critics claim that removing them is “erasing history.”

Protesters removed a statue of Queen Victoria in Winnipeg, Canada, earlier this year, while a statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, was thrown in a river in Bristol, England.

An exact date for when the ‘The Young Woman of Amajac’ will be erected on Paseo de la Reforma has not been announced.

Edited by Melanie Slone and Kristen Butler



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Nazi Political Propaganda Art On Exhibit For First Time In Austria

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Nazi Political Propaganda Art On Exhibit For First Time In Austria

By Joseph Golder

Artwork from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts — a government agency in Nazi Germany established in 1933 by Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels — is exhibited for the first time at a museum in Vienna, Austria.

“The Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskammer der bildenden Kuenste, RdbK) was the most powerful institution for the political control of art under National Socialism. Membership was a prerequisite for professional art work, making it a de facto obligation for active artists. Persons with Jewish backgrounds, political dissidents, and artists considered too avant-garde were denied membership,” the Wien Museum said.

Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, membership book of Heinrich Revy, 1938. (Wien Museum, Paul Bauer/Zenger)

“The files of the Viennese Reichskammer have now been examined for the first time, revealing the records of about 3,000 artists. Countless works by such figures active during the Nazi regime have also found their way into the collections of Vienna’s museums.”

The exhibition is titled “Vienna Falls in Line: The Politics of Art under National Socialism.”

“New research into these materials provides insight into the political power structures, processes, networks, and artistic attitudes of the Nazi regime, the artists working under it, and their artworks,” the museum said.

Vienna Kunstlerhaus, an art exhibition building in Vienna, in 1938. (Austrian National Library/Zenger)

The exhibition presents the new findings in seven sections.

“Original objects and documents provide information about the working artists of Nazi Vienna in general and their production of explicitly political propaganda art in particular,” the museum said. “The consequences of Gleichschaltung (the total control of all aspects of cultural life) are traced through nine artist biographies.”

The museum said the “Nazification” of politics and culture predated the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany.

“In 1936, under the Austrofascist regime, the first Nazi propaganda exhibitions were held” the museum said, “and Austrians participated in expositions in the German Reich. The sculptor Wilhelm Frass, in 1935, hid a letter in which he professed his fealty to Nazism under the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in the Heroes’ Gate; many other Austrian artists, meanwhile, openly flaunted their Nazi sympathies.”

The museum also said that “the anti-Semitic Union of German Painters of Austria was founded in 1937.

“Many artists’ associations were infiltrated by ‘illegals,’ individuals who remained loyal National Socialists after the ban on the Nazi Party on June 19, 1933, until the Anschluss [annexation] on 12th March 1938. Liberal cultural policies were systematically eliminated.”

Austrian Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski’s painting of a young farmer from Munnichiwies, Slovakia, around 1940. (Wien Museum, Paul Bauer/Zenger)

After Adolf Hitler annexed Austria, “the Reich Chamber’s admissions process for new members was subject to strict bureaucratic regulations; aspiring members needed to meet the Nazi regime’s artistic, political, and racial criteria. Political dissidents and Jewish artists were barred from membership. The Vienna head office reviewed the applications to make sure they were complete,” the museum said, but they were then forwarded to the central office of the Nazi regime in Berlin.

“The power to decide a candidate’s fate and issue a letter of admission rested with the Berlin office,” the museum said.

There is evidence of about 3,000 members of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in Vienna during the Nazi regime, the museum said. “Each of these files stands for the fate of an individual artist. Considered in its entirety, the collection offers insight into the rigid system of Nazi art policy, which was characterized by exclusion, oppression, and enforced conformity.”

As an example of the Nazi influence on art and culture in the Austrian capital, the museum gave, among others, Vienna City Hall.

The Wien Museum exhibition “Vienna Falls In Line” explores the politics of art under National Socialism during the Nazi regime. (Wien Museum, Lisa Rastl/Zenger)
Some of the objects on display in the Wien Museum’s exhibition “Vienna Falls In Line.” (Wien Museum, Lisa Rastl/Zenger)

“The Office of Culture founded by the National Socialists supported selected Viennese artists, who were also entrusted with the task of redesigning the artistic decoration of City Hall in line with the Nazi regime’s preferences. By holding competitions and directly ordering works, political decision makers secured their influence over the output of artists and guided their production toward their own aesthetic and propagandistic vision.

“Vienna’s City Hall was the seat of the Nazi municipal administration. In 1939, competitions were held for a redesign of the representative and office rooms in line with Nazi ideology, and selected artists were hired to paint official portraits of high-ranking appointees.

“Monumental murals depicted subjects from German legend and the new Ostmark. Tapestries with Nazi slogans and insignia were an integral part of the regime’s aesthetic program. A platform was added to the tower from which Hitler could address the masses.

“Passages from Hitler’s speech from April 1938 in which he called Vienna the ‘gem of the Reich’ framed a tapestry as well as the new ‘exterior pulpit’ where his words were immortalized on bronze plaques.”

The exhibition runs through April 24, 2022.

Edited by Judith Isacoff and Kristen Butler



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Tumor Cryoablation Treatment Proven In Breast Cancer Study

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Tumor Cryoablation Treatment Proven In Breast Cancer Study

By Abigail Klein Leichman

A minimally invasive cryoablation technology for freezing cancerous and benign tumors, developed at IceCure Medical in Israel, proved safe and effective in a three-year trial in the United States.

An article in the Annals of Surgical Oncology reports that at a mean of 34.83 months following treatment with IceCure’s ProSense cryoablation system, only 4 of 194 patients experienced cancer recurrence.

The trial was “designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of breast cryoablation, enabling women older than 60 years with low-risk early-stage breast cancers to benefit from a nonsurgical treatment and to avoid the associated surgical risks,” the report says.

Founded in 2006, IceCure developed its advanced liquid-nitrogen-based cryoablation therapy for treating tumors of the breast, kidney, bone and lung as a safe and quick alternative to surgical tumor removal. The system is sold worldwide, after receiving FDA and CE approvals.

The ICE3 trial commenced in 2014 and was conducted across 19 American hospitals, including Columbia University Medical Center and Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Study participants had low-risk, early-stage breast cancer tumors measuring up to 1.5 cm.

Stress fibers and microtubules in human breast cancer cells. (National Cancer Institute/Unsplash)

Lead author Dr. Richard Fine, program director of the Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship and director of research and education at the West Comprehensive Breast Center in Germantown, Tennessee, concluded that “breast cryoablation presents a promising alternative to surgery while offering the benefits of a minimally invasive procedure with minimal risks.”

Fine stated that the minimally invasive option for treating appropriate low-risk patients represents a dramatic improvement in care.

“The procedure is quick, painless and can be delivered with local anesthesia in the doctor’s office, with minimal recovery time and excellent cosmetic outcomes,” Fine said.

“Having a peer reviewed publication of the ICE3 Clinical Study interim results in a well-respected medical journal represents a major milestone for IceCure in solidifying the efficacy and adaptation of its solution by the broader medical community for the treatment of certain breast cancers,” said IceCure CEO Eyal Shamir.

Fine presented his findings at the recent conference at the Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development Conference in Rochester, Minnesota.

The World Health Organization said in a March 2021 report that “in 2020 there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685 000 deaths globally. As of the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past five years, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer.”

Produced in association with Israel21C.



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Astronauts Carry Out Space Mission In Israeli Desert

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Astronauts Carry Out Space Mission In Israeli Desert

By Naama Barak

Makhtesh Ramon in the Israeli desert looks like some place straight out of space, with its masses of reddish sand, bizarre rock formations and general sense of absolute peace and quiet. And now it’s playing the part.

The crater this month is home to a “space” mission that simulates an expedition on Mars.

With expeditions to Mars already expected to take place in the foreseeable future, the AMADEE-20 Mars simulation, led by the Israel Space Agency and the Austrian Space Forum, seeks to prepare for such expeditions to the Red Planet by conducting analog ones in a setting that is similar to it, both geologically and topographically.

Analog missions, according to NASA, are field tests in locations that have physical similarities to the extreme space environments.

Two crew members are fully suited ahead of their mission to simulate an expedition to Mars. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)
Control teams aid in preparation for the mission. Photo by Florian Voggeneder/OeWF
Control teams help prepare for the mission. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF_
Control teams aid in preparation for the mission.Photo by Florian Voggeneder/OeWF
Control teams are key to preparing for the mission. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)

To do so, six analog astronauts from Austria, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are spending three weeks “on Mars” carrying out some 20 experiments sent in by 200 researchers from 25 countries in order to test their methodologies and equipment.

The experiments come from the fields of biology, geology, engineering, medicine and psychology. One experiment examines the microbiome of the analog astronauts during their stay in “space;” another explores their possible biological contamination of their surroundings; and more are testing the operation of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles for exploration purposes. The crew is also checking out equipment, including anti-radiation vests and moondust-repellent textiles.

This year’s Mars analog field mission isn’t the first to take place in Makhtesh Ramon. In 2018, in a mission called D-MARS, the astronauts spent their time measuring cosmic radiation and collecting ground samples from the site.

The analog astronauts pose against the desert backdrop ahead of their mission. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)
A rover set to be tested as part of the mission makes its way around the terrain. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)
Two analog astronauts stroll around Makhtesh Ramon in the Israeli desert ahead. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)
The analog astronauts leave their habitat through an airlock. (Florian Voggeneder/OeWF)

The first Mars “settlement” on Earth was established on an island in northern Canada in 2000. Since then, similar sites have been established in Utah, Hawaii and Moscow, but this year’s AMADEE-20 expedition is the most complex one to date.

“Our cooperation with the Austrian Space Forum and the hosting of AMADEE-20 in Israel are in line with our policy to support science, take part in the international efforts for manned space expeditions and to promote our educational program. We are proud to be part of the mission and will make every effort to ensure its success,” said Israel Space Agency director Avi Blasberger.

Produced in association with Israel21C.



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VIDEO: Saw Losers: Pickup Truck Crooks Hurled Tools At Chasing Police Car  

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VIDEO: Saw Losers: Pickup Truck Crooks Hurled Tools At Chasing Police Car  

By Joseph Golder

You may have heard the expression “tooling down the highway,” which generally means going out for a leisurely drive. But two suspected thieves in Florida put an ominous spin on that saying by tossing tools and other items from the back of a stolen Ford F-250 pickup truck at the police cars chasing them.

The lengthy chase took place Oct. 11 on State Road 100 just outside Jacksonville, Florida.

Footage released by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office begins with a police car with its sirens blaring following a pickup truck that appears to have items in the back of it that are covered in a tarpaulin sheet. The truck pulls out onto a road and nudges vehicles out of the way as it attempts to flee the law enforcement officers.

Multiple police cars appear to be involved in the chase and one of the officers can be heard saying in the video that the suspects are dropping tools out of the pickup truck and advising his colleagues to be careful. The police car from which the footage was shot swerves to avoid the tools in the road.

Authorities said the driver of the truck, subsequently identified as Shane Hendricks, began throwing tools from the driver’s side window at pursuing deputies. He then climbed through a window into the bed of the truck while the passenger, later identified as Tammy Pecor, took over driving the stolen vehicle. Hendricks continued to throw tools from the bed of the truck at law enforcement, including a large blue toolbox, a stamping machine, a sledgehammer.

The suspected thieves threw tools from the pickup truck at the police cars chasing them. (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)

The chase eventually ends when the pickup truck slows and leaves the road with damaged tires caused by “stop sticks” authorities laid down earlier in the incident. After coming to a stop, Hendricks and Pecor exit the vehicle and are arrested when at least five police officers close in on them with their guns drawn.

“This was a wild and one of the most bizarre chases I have seen in my career,” said Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. “These dirtbags, with their long criminal histories, thought it was a good idea to throw tools at our deputies and flee rather than surrender peacefully. Maybe they have watched too much TV and were making a movie. They did. One that a judge will see!”

During a search of the stolen vehicle, deputies located a brown leather bag with a loaded semiautomatic firearm, a scale covered with white residue, a straw lined with a white crystaline substance, a cutting board, methamphetamine and cocaine. In addition, the license plate and the truck were reported stolen from Jacksonville.

After being arrested, Hendricks and Pecor were taken to the county’s jail. They each face a variety of charges, including fleeing and eluding law enforcement officers with lights and sirens on, throwing a deadly missile at vehicles, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and driving with a suspended license.

Hendricks is being held without bail, while Peco is being held on a $76,000 bond. As mentioned by Staly, both had an extensive previous arrest record.

Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Kristen Butler



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Largest Byzantine Winepress In The World Unearthed

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Largest Byzantine Winepress In The World Unearthed

By Naama Barak

When an initiative to expand the Israeli coastal plain city of Yavneh first took off, few could have imagined the endeavor would include a fabulous archeological find: the largest and most impressive Byzantine winepress ever unearthed.

As part of preliminary work to build a new neighborhood, archeologists found the 1,500-year-old industrial complex, which includes five winepresses, warehouses to age and market the wine, kilns for firing the clay jars storing the wines and tens of thousands of intact and fragmented earthenware jars.

The wine produced at the site was a light white “Gaza wine” famous at the time. It was exported via the Gaza and Ashkelon ports to markets in Egypt, Greece and Turkey.

The large size of the site led archeologists to estimate that some 2 million liters (528,344 gallons) of wine were produced there annually, all by hand — or rather by foot, as the grapes were crushed by treading on them.

The largest known wine industry area in the world dated to the Byzantine period. (Assaf Peretz/ Israel Antiquities Authority)

Drinking wine was common in the Byzantine period, both for adults and children. This was because water was often either unsanitary or unpalatable, and wine was used as a “concentrate” to improve its flavor or as a replacement drink.

“Gaza and Ashkelon wine was considered a quality wine brand of the ancient world, whose reputation has spread far and wide, a bit like Jaffa oranges denote their origin and quality today from Israel,” said archeologists Elie Hadad, Liat Nadav-Ziv and Jon Seligman.

“Everyone knew that this was a product from the Holy Land, and everyone wanted more and more of this wine.”

An aerial view of the large ancient winepress discovered in the coastal city of Yavne. (Assaf Peretz/Israel Antiquities Authority)
Yavneh excavation directors, from left, Elie Hadad, Liat Nadav-Ziv and Jon Seligman with some of their finds. (Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)

“It is well known … that the wines of Gaza had earned an international reputation during the Byzantine period, particularly during the fifth and sixth centuries C.E. when pilgrimage to the holy land reached its peak,” the late Philip Mayerson, former Professor Emeritus of Classics at New York University, wrote in an article published in the Israel Exploration Journal in 1992.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Land Authority, which carried out the digs, together with Yavneh municipality, invited the public to tour the winemaking complex before it is covered to protect it from impending rains.

The complex will be open to visitors once the findings are preserved and made accessible.

Produced in association with Israel21C.



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Smarter News Quiz: Royal Firsts, Christmas Remakes and the Food Police

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Smarter News Quiz: Royal Firsts, Christmas Remakes and the Food Police

By Rachel McMahon


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VIDEO: Florida Man Jumps Fences, Breaks Into Couple’s Home And Attacks Man

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VIDEO: Florida Man Jumps Fences, Breaks Into Couple’s Home And Attacks Man

By Joseph Golder

A Florida man allegedly high on methamphetamine who jumped over people’s fences before breaking into an elderly couple’s home and attacking a man there has been arrested by sheriff’s deputies.

The incident took place the evening of Oct. 11 in Holly Hill, which is just north of Daytona Beach on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The suspect has been identified as Shawn Loncala, 35, and cops say he was arrested at around 10:15 p.m. after a group of deputies searching the neighborhood spotted him.

“A Holly Hill-area burglary suspect was taken into custody Monday night after deputies responded to several calls about a suspect jumping on a roof, running through yards and breaking into the home of a couple who confronted him in their dining room,” according to a statement from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which shared footage of the chase online.

The office said deputies were first dispatched around 9:10 p.m., when a resident in a Holly Hill neighborhood reported hearing someone on her roof.

“Responding deputies didn’t find anyone on her property, but soon received additional reports of a suspect running throughout the area jumping fences,” authorities said. “About 30 minutes after the initial report, another call came in reporting a break-in at a home on Old Kings Road.”

Shawn Loncala, 35, who was caught after entering the home of Holly Hill-Area couple in Volusia County, Florida. (Volusia Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)

“Somebody just came in my house,” the unnamed caller said. “He was running, he’s out here in the yard somewhere. My dog is out there chasing him. He pushed my husband down.”

The woman explained that she was in bed on the second floor and her husband was in an adjoining bathroom when they heard a noise coming from the home’s first floor.

They went downstairs and found Loncala in their dining room. When the husband, who’s 75, tried to apprehend him, Loncala pushed him and ran out the front door.

The sheriff’s department then dispatched its helicopter and K-9 unit to assist in the search.

“As deputies discussed their next steps in the search, they spotted a suspect matching the description and ordered him to the ground,” the sheriff’s office reports. “The suspect, quickly identified as Loncala, told deputies he had been running for several hours, hopping fences, trying to elude capture on his outstanding warrants. While he appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance, he claimed he’d been carrying two handguns that he dropped somewhere along the way, and that he’d hoped to engage deputies in a shootout.

Shawn Loncala is seen running here in a spotlight shone from a sheriff’s helicopter. He was subsequently captured by authorities. (Volusia Sheriff’s Office/Zenger)

Loncala faces a litany of charges related to his run, along with arrest warrants for several previous violations.

“He was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault/battery and battery on a person 65 or older for pushing down the husband of the caller on Old Kings Road, the sheriff’s department said. “He was also arrested on an active warrant for domestic battery by strangulation and an additional charge of making harassing phone calls, along with violating his probation on prior charges of domestic battery by strangulation, felony battery, false imprisonment and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement.

“He is in the Volusia County Branch Jail with no bond as of this writing.”

The authorities later updated that posting: “Upon further investigation, deputies found a large plastic bag containing 13.5 grams (about a half-ounce) of crystal meth that Loncala hid in a backyard in the area. He is now charged with possession of methamphetamine in addition to his other charges.”

No further information was available on whether deputies found the guns referred to by Loncala.

Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Kristen Butler



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