Bullied teen kills herself in front of her family

December 2, 2016

Texas City, Dec 2: Family members of a Houston-area high school student who killed herself are rallying for tighter laws against cyberbullying.

brandyBrandy Vela's family says cyberbullying pushed the 18-year-old over the edge, leading her to shoot herself in the chest Tuesday afternoon at the family's Texas City home as family members watched.

Her father, Raul Vela, said she had been receiving abusive text messages for months from bullies using an untraceable smartphone application. Her father said someone made a fake Facebook page of her, creating another cyberbullying medium.

"I heard someone crying," Brandy's 22-year-old sister, Jacqueline Vela, told KPRC-TV of Houston, "so I ran upstairs and I looked in her room, and she's against the wall and she has a gun pointed at her chest and she's just crying and crying and I'm like, 'Brandy, please don't. Brandy, no."

Jacqueline Vela said she went to her parents' room, "and I just heard the shot and my dad just yelled, 'Help me. Help me. Help me.'"

"I was almost certain that I could persuade her to put that gun down. It didn't work. She pulled the trigger," Raul Vela said.

Her final cellphone text to her family was, "I love you so much just remember that please and I'm so sorry for everything."

Her family said the harassment focused mainly on Brandy's weight.

"They would make dating websites of her, and they would put her number and they would put her picture (on the sites), and lie about her age and say she is giving herself up for sex for free, to call her," said Jacqueline Vela.

The family said they reported the bullying to the Texas City school district and several law enforcement agencies.

"School was a safe environment for Brandy," said school district spokeswoman Melissa Tortorici. "She had a lot of friends and was thought of warmly by her peers and teachers. She did bring it to the school's attention before Thanksgiving break that she was getting harassing messages to her cellphone outside of school. Our deputy investigated it, and the app that was being used to send the messages was untraceable. We encouraged her to change her phone number."

Brandy Vela changed her number, but bullies always found her, her family said.

"We have lots of incident reports, and they always say the same thing: They can't do anything about it," Jacqueline Vela said.

A Texas City Police Department statement says it continues to investigate the Velas' complaints. Jacqueline Vela told KPRC that she and her siblings have a good idea who may have been behind some of these attacks and have been assisting in the investigation.

The father said that he hopes for stricter laws against cyberbullying and greater awareness of the problem to give some meaning to his daughter's death.

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News Network
July 22,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 22:An accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act jumped into the sea on Wednesday morning when he was taken for evidence collection at Kasaba in Kasargode district, police said.

Accused Mahesh was arrested following a complaint by his neighbour on Tuesday evening.

The police said that they took the accused to the seashore to collect evidence in the case when Mahesh jumped into the sea. Two police officials too jumped in after him to catch hold of him but could not locate Mahesh.

Later, swimmers were deployed to try and locate the missing man.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

Mumbai, Jan 12: At least eight persons were killed and several others injured when a massive blast followed by a fire ripped a chemical factory at Boisar in Palghar district, nearly 100 km north of Mumbai, on Saturday, officials said.

Top Palghar district administration, police and fire brigade officials have rushed to the spot for the rescue operation, while Fire Brigade teams from Boisar MIDC industrial area and Tarapur Atomic Power Station are engaged in dousing the flames.

As per local witnesses, the intensity of the explosion was so severe that it was audible in a 35-km range and one building in the factory collapsed.

Besides, many homes in the immediate vicinity were shaken and people ran outside thinking it was an earthquake, as power lines also failed.

The exact cause of the explosion-cum-blaze which occurred around 7 p.m. is not immediately available.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Hyderabad, MAY 28: A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into a newly drilled open borewell in Telangana's Medak district was found dead in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The kid's body was retrieved at around 4 am after a nearly 10 hours' long rescue operation involving different agencies, they said.

"He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply, " Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti told PTI.

The boy had accidentally slipped into the 120- feet borewell at around 5 pm on Wednesday in an agricultural field located in Papannapet mandal of the district when he was walking with his grandfather and father, police earlier said.

As part of rescue efforts, a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines and oxygen was supplied into it, but the efforts went in vain as the boy's body was found stuck at a depth of around 25 feet, the police said.

Apart from the police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were also involved in the rescue operation.

The borewell into which the child fell was one among the three dug by the family since Tuesday night to try and find water for their fields. But none of them yielded any water, police had said.

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