Polk County

Authorities in central Florida have arrested two men and one woman in the killings of three best friends who had gathered last Friday for a night of fishing.

Three friends were slain in Florida moments after getting together to do some night fishing at a lake

George Zimmerman has filed a lawsuit against two presidential candidates for defamation after they paid tribute to Trayvon Martin on what would have been Martin’s 25th birthday, the lawsuit alleges. In the lawsuit, Zimmerman says he was defamed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren for “political gain in misguided and malicious attempts to bolster their standings amongst...

Authorities say a Florida man didn’t want to show up for his shift at a Hardee’s restaurant, so he called 911 and reported he’d just been robbed.

A state attorney said Friday that a city commissioner in central Florida was indicted on the charge of second-degree murder in the death of a suspected shoplifter at his military surplus store earlier this month, NBC News reported. The Oct. 3 shooting was captured on store surveillance and showed Lakeland City Commissioner Michael Dunn firing at Christobal Lopez, 50, at...

A TV news anchor and a photojournalist were killed Monday when a tree fell on their vehicle in North Carolina as they reported on flooding and severe weather associated with Subtropical Storm Alberto, the television station said. WYFF-TV Anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer both worked in the Greenville, South Carolina, market for more than a decade, anchor Carol...

A Florida man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for shaking his infant daughter so violently that it left her with permanent brain damage. The Ledger reports that 30-year-old Delavon Domique Johnson was sentenced Friday. A Polk County jury convicted him in January of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm. Authorities say Johnson had been left alone...

A Florida man called 911 on New Year’s Eve to report a drunken driver: himself.

The twin-engine Cessna 340 crashed shortly after takeoff at Bartow Municipal Airport, immediately killing the 70-year-old pilot and his four adult passengers.

No one was hurt in the incident, but Polk County Sheriff’s deputies have been going door to door in neighborhoods close to the crash telling residents to remain indoors, close windows and turn off air conditioners.

A Florida woman was arrested Thursday for allegedly riding a horse while intoxicated, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Donna Byrne, 53, was charged with a DUI and animal neglect for putting the horse in danger of being injured or killed, the department said. According to officers, she smelled of alcohol, had watery, red eyes and was staggering while...

A Florida sheriff is facing a lawsuit over his announcement that people seeking shelter from Hurricane Irma would be given background checks, NBC News reported. Andres Borreno argued in his suit that Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd “misused emergency shelters as unlawful pedestrian checkpoints to conduct suspicionless warrant/criminal background checks on human beings desperate for shelter.” Borreno was part of...

Six convicts in Polk County, Georgia, had their sentences shortened Thursday after saving a guard who collapsed on duty, NBC News reported. When the officer, who wished to remain anonymous, collapsed during a work detail at a local cemetery, the inmates took off his bulletproof vest to help him cool off and used his phone to call 911, the Polk...

Investigators say a man who was wearing baggy blue jeans managed to stuff 15 quart-sized bottles of Pennzoil motor oil and 30 DVDs down his pants before walking out of a 7-Eleven store in Lakeland, Florida, last week. Unfortunately for the thief, a Polk County sheriff’s detective happened to be parked outside and saw the whole thing happen.

A large, black-and-white checkered statue of a swan that was stolen in Florida by a naked man has been found. The Polk County Sheriff’s office says the statue was found by a 32-year-old man who was fishing on a pond in Lakeland. The man returned home from fishing Thursday and told his family about the statue. When they saw the...

Florida officials say arsonists have ignited about 320 wildfires so far this year, burning more than 20,000 acres across the state.

Sheriff’s officials say they’ve arrested a former Mississippi law enforcement officer driver accused of fleeing after hitting five children when they got off a school bus in central Florida.

The reptiles of various sizes were filmed crawling out of a pond to enter a deeper canal on the opposite side of a dirt road.

The video taken by a visitor to the Circle B Bar Reserve on Sunday shows the gator estimated to be about 12-feet long lumbering across a trail.

News outlets report a Polk County jury found Gates, who was sentenced Wednesday, guilty of battery after he was captured on cellphone video kicking 19-year-old Miranda Dixon.