Arizona

Video shows terrifying moment 1,000 killer bees attacked one-legged Arizona man and his dog

Published

2 years ago

May 24, 2023

Video shows terrifying moment 1,000 killer bees attacked one-legged Arizona man and his dog

Distressing video captures the moment a disabled Arizona man and his dog were attacked and badly hurt by a swarm of killer bees as he was riding his wheelchair exercise bike.

John Fischer, 60, and his pooch Pippin were out for some exercise in their Florence neighborhood Saturday evening when about 1,000 bees overwhelmed them, Arizona Family reported.

Surveillance footage published by the outlet shows Fischer – who lost a leg to infection about eight years ago – trying to crawl on the ground while using his shirt to shield him from the buzzing insects.

Fischer said he sustained over 250 stingers in his body in the harrowing attack, which left him with stings on his arms, eyes, mouth, ears, legs and back – as well scrapes from crawling on the ground after his wheelchair overturned.

“I crawled my way for a period of time to try to get far away from where they were, but they, of course, just followed me,” Fischer told Arizona Family.

John Fischer, 60, a disabled Arizona resident, and his dog Pippin were attacked by a swarm of hundreds of killer bees while he was out on his exercise wheelchair bike.

KTVK / KPHO

Fisher seen on video crawling on ground — Fischer, who only has one leg, was caught on video trying to flee from the bees by crawling on the ground.

First responders even had to initially retreat after the bees also began attacking them, but Fischer was finally hosed down by rescuers and rushed to a hospital, where he was given morphine for the pain and had the stingers removed from his badly bruised body.

Pippin was stung over 50 times and was taken to an animal hospital in critical condition.

“I have never experienced anything like this before. I had been stung many times before but nothing where it was more than 10 or 15 stings,” he told Arizona Family.

“There was a part of me that wanted to freak out, and there was a part of me that wanted to panic. And I knew, from past experience, that’s where you’ll lose it. And you’re no longer in control. That’s where you run into more danger,” Fischer said.

Fischer shows sting marks — “I have never experienced anything like this before. I had been stung many times before but nothing where it was more than 10 or 15 stings,” he said.

Injured pooch Pippin — Pippin was stung over 50 times and remained in critical condition at an animal hospital.

He said he was pedaling his chair with his hands with Pippin in tow when he felt what he thought was a fly and swatted it away.

“Next thing I know, there were bees all over me and all over the dog,” Fischer told the outlet. “I tried to get across the street, but I can’t see ’cause they’re going towards my eyes, and they’re all over my face.”

He managed to release Pippin, who was also getting attacked, and he ran away to a neighbor’s house, but Fischer’s wheelchair overturned during the relentless attack.

Explaining Pippin’s injuries, he addded: “He’s sick. We’re trying to get him to drink. He is very sore, and what I can see is he’s pretty lethargic. We’re also giving him Benadryl, so that’s going to knock him out,” Fischer said.

He launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for his dog’s care.

“Unlike me, he is allergic to bee stings,” Fischer wrote about his canine companion, who he said was in critical condition due to the toxins.

Fischer shows his amputated leg — Fischer lost one leg to an infection about eight years ago.

Fischer shows scraped knee — He suffered scrapes on his knee after crawling on the ground to escape from the bees.

“We don’t have all the details at this time, but hospitalization for at least a few more days is going to happen. He is back in the danger zone,” he added.

Fischer said he was grateful to the Florence firefighters who rushed to help him – and expressed his relief that his daughter wasn’t with him that night as she is also allergic to bees.

As a final act of revenge against his attackers, he used his chair to run over a live bee that fell out of his bag.

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Related Topics:arizona Bees dogs Featured Insects news wheelchairs

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Arizona

Arizona driver sentenced in wrong-way crash that killed Maui woman, 2 others

Published

3 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Arizona driver sentenced in wrong-way crash that killed Maui woman, 2 others

PHOENIX (AZFamily/HawaiiNewsNow) – An Arizona man who pleaded guilty in a 2022 wrong-way crash that killed three people, including a Maui woman, has been sentenced.

Vincent Ian Acosta, 27, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, with credit for time served, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

The crash happened just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2022, when Acosta hit three other vehicles while driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of Interstate 17 near New River.

Two people died at the scene and a third died at a hospital. They were later identified as:

Hunter Balberdi, 19, from Wailuku, HI
Abriauna Hoffman, 18, from Clarkston, WA
Magdalyn (Maggie) Ogden, 18, from Clarkston, WA

According to court documents obtained by Hawaii News Now’s sister station, Arizona’s Family, Acosta’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.129. The legal BAC in Arizona is 0.08.

Balberdi was a 19-year-old Baldwin High School graduate and pre-med student at Grand Canyon University. Hoffman and Ogden were her roommates.

Acosta pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder last August.

His plea deal detailed a potential sentence between 18 and 22 years in prison on each charge, which are to be served simultaneously.

His license must also be revoked, AZ Family reported.

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Arizona

How to Watch & Listen to West Virginia vs. Arizona State

Published

10 hours ago

January 20, 2025

Press Room

How to Watch & Listen to West Virginia vs. Arizona State

The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-4, 4-2) host the Arizona State Sun Devils (10-7, 1-5) Tuesday night for the first ever meeting between the two programs.

When: Tuesday, January 21

Location: Morgantown, West Virginia, WVU Coliseum (14,000)

Tip-off: 9:00 p.m. EST

TV: CBSSN

Announcers: Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas

Radio: Tony Caridi (PBP), Brad Howe (analyst) Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College (Radio affiliates)

Sirius XM: 161 or 199

WVU Game Notes

– Darian DeVries was named the recipient of the Jim Phelan Award ‘Mid-Season’ honor, presented annually to the top head coach in Division I college basketball.

– Arizona State is the 195th different team to play a game vs. West Virginia in the WVU Coliseum (non-exhibition).

– West Virginia is 155-39 against teams making their first appearance in the Coliseum.

– WVU broke into the rankings on Jan. 6 at No. 21 in the AP poll. It marked WVU’s first appearance in the AP poll since Dec. 26, 2022. The Mountaineers have been ranked in at least one poll in 16 of the last 20 seasons.

– This week, the Mountaineers are ranked No. 23 in both polls.

– Darian DeVries, who led Drake to six consecutive 20-win seasons and has a career .734 winning percentage as a head coach, was named the 23rd head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University on March 24, 2024.

– DeVries has a record of 163-59 (.734) in seven seasons as a head coach, including a 68-19 (.782) mark in the last two-plus seasons.

– West Virginia is currently ranked No. 30 in the latest NCAA NET rankings.

– WVU is ranked No. 36 in the latest KenPom rankings, including 19th in defensive efficiency.

– Javon Small ranks sixth overall in KenPom Player of the Year standings.

– West Virginia is 7-1 this season when Javon Small posts 20 or more points in a game.

– In the latest NCAA stats, WVU ranks 24th in fi eld goal percentage defense (39.2), 20th in scoring defense (63.8) and 10th in 3-point percentage defense (28.1).

– Javon Small was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Jan. 20, the third time he has earned the award this season.

– Javon Small was named Big 12 Player of the Week, NCAA March Madness Player of the Week and the Naismith Trophy National Player of the Week for Jan. 6.

– Javon Small was named co-Big 12 Player of the Week and Tucker DeVries was tabbed as the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Dec. 2. Both were named to the Battle 4 Atlantis All-Tournament Team.

– Small was named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week on Dec. 3.

– Small leads the Big 12 Conference in scoring at 19.8 points per game.

– WVU is 271-100 in its last 371 games against unranked teams, including winners of 153 of its last 186 at the WVU Coliseum.

– Darian DeVries is 6-6 against ranked teams during his head coaching career. He is 4-1 at WVU with wins over No. 2 Iowa State, No. 3 Gonzaga, at No. 7 Kansas and No. 24 Arizona.

– WVU has defeated two Top 10 teams away from home this season, marking the fi rst time that has happened in the same season since 2005-06.

– WVU has the most Top 10 wins (three) this season in the country along with Alabama and Kentucky.

– WVU’s three Top 10 wins ties for the most in a season in school history along with the 2016-17 & 2005-06 teams.

– WVU is 105-116 in Big 12 regular season games since joining the league in 2012-13.

– WVU is 618-188 (.767) all-time at the WVU Coliseum and 259-74 at the WVU Coliseum in the last 21 seasons.

– WVU is 2-1 on the road in Big 12 road games (wins at Kansas and at Colorado). The Mountaineers have already matched its road win total in conference play as the last three seasons combined (2-25).

– The Mountaineers have won 114 of their last 174 conference games at the WVU Coliseum.

– West Virginia returned just 2.8 percent of its scoring from last season’s team (Ofri Naveh).

– For this season, Tucker DeVries (Drake), Javon Small (Oklahoma State), Eduardo Andre (Fresno State), Joseph Yesufu (Washington State), Sencire Harris (Illinois), Amani Hansberry (Illinois) and Jayden Stone (Detroit Mercy) were added from the transfer portal.

– Entering this season, they have combined to play 806 games, made 442 starts, scored 7,606 points, grabbed 3,304 rebounds and dished out 1,248 assists.

– Darian DeVries is 73-2 when scoring 80 or more points in a game and 140-17 when scoring 70 or more.

– Darian DeVries is 117-21 when holding opponents to 69 points or less and 56-6 when holding opponents to 59 points or less.

– West Virginia was predicted 13th in the Preseason Big 12 Poll by the league’s head coaches.

– West Virginia has made at least one 3-point fi eld goal in 881 consecutive games.

– The Mountaineers have won 154 of their last 172 games when holding opponents to 69 points or less.

– WVU has won 165 of its last 186 and 221 of its last 249 games when holding opponents to less than 69 points.

– Darian DeVries is 126-15 as a head coach when leading at halftime, including an 11-1 mark at WVU.

– West Virginia is 15-9 all-time in games played on January 21.

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Arizona

Amazon suspends commercial drone deliveries in Texas, Arizona after two crashes in rainy weather

Published

18 hours ago

January 20, 2025

Press Room

Amazon suspends commercial drone deliveries in Texas, Arizona after two crashes in rainy weather

Amazon has temporarily suspended its commercial drone delivery operations in Texas and Arizona after two of its latest MK30 models crashed in rainy weather at a testing facility.

The company announced on Friday that it was pausing the program to implement software updates to ensure the safety of its fleet.

The crashes, which occurred in December at Amazon’s Pendleton, Ore. testing site, were attributed to a software malfunction caused by light rain.

One of the drones caught fire upon impact.

Although an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg News that the crashes were not the “primary reason” for the pause, the company declined to specify other issues being addressed in the software update.

Amazon’s MK30 drones had been delivering packages in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Ariz. after the company won approval from the Federal Aviation Administration in October.

Last summer, the mayor of College Station sent a strongly worded letter to the FAA to protest Amazon’s drones and their noise levels, which some locals likened to a “giant hive of bees.”

The six-propeller model is designed to be lighter, quieter and capable of flying in light rain — a feature now under scrutiny.

“We’re currently in the process of making software changes to the drone and will be voluntarily pausing our commercial operations,” Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson told Bloomberg News.

“Deliveries will resume once the updates are completed and approved by the FAA.”

Employees at the affected drone sites will continue to be paid during the suspension.

The decision marks another setback for Amazon’s Prime Air, which has struggled for over a decade to expand its drone delivery service.

Despite regulatory milestones, including FAA clearance to fly beyond an operator’s visual line of sight, the program remains in limited trials.

Amazon completed its first test flight in Italy last month and is seeking approvals for operations in the UK.

In addition to the December crashes, a previously unreported incident in September saw two Amazon drones collide due to operator error.

According to an FAA report, the company was testing the MK30’s response to motor failure when a second drone was mistakenly launched on a collision course.

The drones crashed midair and spiraled to the ground. Amazon has since revised its operating procedures and training protocols.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating both the September and December crashes.

Amazon maintains that such tests are essential for improving drone safety.

“The purpose of these tests is to push our aircraft past their limits — it would be irresponsible not to do that,” Stephenson said.

Amazon’s drone program has encountered multiple safety concerns in recent years.

A Bloomberg investigation previously documented five crashes in 2021, including one that caused a brushfire.

The FAA recorded at least four additional crashes in 2022, three due to sudden power loss.

In November 2023, Amazon temporarily halted operations after an MK27-2 drone crashed when its battery failed mid-flight.

As Amazon works to refine its technology, it remains uncertain whether the company will be able to overcome its setbacks and make drone delivery a permanent mainstay.

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