Boy, 10, Escapes As Mom Drives Family into Hudson River
A 10-year-old boy escaped a sinking car after his distraught mother drove her family into the Hudson River about 8 p.m. Tuesday.
According to the NY Times, Lashaun Armstrong escaped the sinking minivan after his mother, Lashandra Armstrong, 25, steered the car off a boat ramp and into the river a few blocks from the row house apartment where the family lived.
“She was a very good mom,” said Tina Claybourne, who lives nearby. “She took care of her kids. She always was with her kids.” (link)
Ms. Armstrong and 3 of her 4 children, Landon Pierce, 5; Lance Pierre, 2; and Lainaina Pierre, 11 months old, all died from drowning.
The driver’s side window of the van was down, suggesting that LaShaun crawled past his mother to escape the sinking van.
Lashaun “managed to hit the power windows,” Chief Ferrara said, and “climbed out before the vehicle sank.”
LaShaun turned up at a Newburgh firehouse about 20 minutes after the domestic disturbance call. He was soaking wet. A woman had picked him up after he swam ashore and driven him to the firehouse to summon help.
The boy was so distraught that, at first, he had trouble speaking.
Firefighters and state police divers found the minivan about an hour later with the four bodies inside. It was submerged under eight feet of murky water about 25 feet from the shore.
Angela Gilliam, Lashanda Armstrong’s aunt, says she spoke to her niece earlier Tuesday and she was “not too good.” Gilliam later called police, saying Armstrong was fighting with the father of three of her four children. The dispatcher reported hearing “tussling in the background.” But when police arrived at the home, no one was there.
Gilliam is now caring for LaShaun, who she said is “doing good.”
Edited to add pictures of the family. Originally posted on April 13, 2011 @ 1:32 p.m.
Video: Gloria James May Not Have Thrown the First Blow
LeBron James’ mother, Gloria James, might be vindicated once a judge sees this surveillance video from the Fontainebleau Hotel.
Police arrested James, 43, for assaulting a hotel valet last week. But it appears that the valet was the aggressor and may have struck James first.
TMZ.com obtained the revealing video which shows the valet guy, Rockfeller Sorel, shoving Gloria several times with his right forearm as she gets in his face.
Gloria swings wildly at Sorel with her left hand and with her purse, which she’s holding in her right hand. The action is obscured by a column, but in the next frame, Gloria can be seen sprawling on the ground. It is unclear if she was pushed.
Even after Gloria’s friends and security intervenes and holds him back, you can still see Sorel in the video advancing menacingly towards a visibly upset James. Now Sorel is suing James, which is ridiculous since the video clearly shows that he pushed her first!
Hopefully, after the Fontainebleau Hotel management reviews this video, they will take disciplinary action against Sorel for putting his hand on a hotel guest. Even if the guest was drunk, the valet should have simply walked away or called security.
To Sorel, James was probably just another loud mouth black chick with a lot of money.
It’s obvious that if Sorel knew the guest was LeBron James’s mother, he would have exercised better judgment. That is the least that is required of a hotel employee — to exercise better judgment when dealing with a rowdy guest. He allowed his emotions to get the best of him, and now he should be fired.
Kobe Bryant Hurls Homophobic Slur At Ref (Video)
The hapless LA Lakers 5-game losing streak skidded to a halt last night when they played San Antonio Spur’s bench at Staples Arena. Even though the Spurs coach sat his starting line-up so they could rest before the playoffs, Kobe and the Lakers still struggled to eke out a win against the Spurs bench.
But it was what Kobe said to a ref midway through the 3rd quarter that has tongues wagging all over the blogosphere:
Bryant, who is notorious for being the NBA’s biggest cry baby, stormed back to the bench, punched a chair and threw down a towel before calling referee Bernie Adams a “f*cking faggot.”
His homophobic tirade was caught live on TNT’s national telecast of the key Western Conference battle with the San Antonio Spurs.
TNT announcer Steve Kerr was shocked at Bryant’s latest display of unsportsmanlike conduct. “You might wanna take the cameras off of him right now, for the children watching from home,” he told the TV production crew.
Let’s see if the NBA suspends this prima donna after the GLAAD folks start protesting outside the arena.
Click Link to watch video
In Case You Missed It: Braxton Family Values S1, E1 (full)
‘Braxton Family Values’ series debut starring The Braxton sisters premiered last night on the Women’s Entertainment Network (WE). The show centers around Grammy Award winning singer Toni Braxton, her mom, Evelyn, her four younger sisters, Traci, Towanda, Trina and Tamar, and their husbands, all of whom are very loving and supportive of their wives.
Even though Toni, 43, is billed as the series star, it is her youngest sister, Tamar Braxton, (pronounced Tay-mahr) who provided the spark for the series premiere last night.
Tamar, 34, and her husband, Vincent Herbert’s liberal use of the domain names .com and .org, appended to the end of every sentence, made Tamar a trending topic on Twitter.com last night.
In a tweet posted on Twitter last night, I asked Tamar how she thought Toni would react now that Tamar is the breakout star of the show. “Toni is my best friend in the world! She loves me!,” she responded emphatically.
But all love aside, Toni has been known to be very competitive. And nothing gets a woman’s competitive juices flowing than sibling rivalries. “I created this show. She didn’t want to do it at first,” Tamar explained. “[Toni] is also [executive] producer with me on this. She knows where she stands!”
Alrighty then…
In episode 1 titled “The Bermuda Triangle,”, Toni is ready to relaunch her singing career. So she invites her four younger sisters to join her for a benefit concert in sunny Bermuda. But old rivalries and resentments threaten to ruin what was meant to be a joyful family reunion.
Click Link to View parts 2 and 3
Lil Wayne Clears Up the Cougar Rumor (Video)
Thanks to celebrity blogger Karen Civil for sending along this video of rapper Lil Wayne clearing up the Cougar rumor.
As you may recall, Sandrarose.com posted the Exclusive pics of Lil Wayne hugged up with his stylist, Marisa Flores, at Compound nightclub earlier this week.
“This is my stylist Marisa…” Wayne says in an interview with DJ Scoob Doo. “This is the reason why I’m flyer than all you ni**as… y’all owe my girl an apology, man.”
Weezy then shouts out Notre Dame point guard Skylar Diggins. Apparently, he’s trying hard to make Skylar his baby mama #5. But how disturbing is it that a grown man is stalking a 18-year-old college student?
Despite all the denials about Wayne and his stylist getting it in, the pictures tell a different story.
But in this case, maybe the old adage: “Believe nothing you see, and only half of what you hear,” is appropriate.
Photos by Prince Williams/ATLPics.net
WHAT HAPPENED TO BEYONCE?
Beyonce’s crazed Stans went into a feeding frenzy when these pics from Bey’s music video for “Girl” hit the Internet yesterday. But they recoiled in horror when they saw what had become of their 29-year-old leader. There had been rampant speculation that Beyonce was not well and that she’d been bleaching her skin. The pictures showed startling evidence of that.
In case you forgot how Beyonce used to look in her heyday. Now she is just a shell of her former self.
After the initial shock wore off, many of the Stans took to Beyonce Fanatic blogs (like YBF) and message boards. The overriding theme was: “What happened to our Beyonce?!”
The flaxen weaved Beyonce was dressed like a gladiator on the set of her music video filmed in Inglewood, California yesterday.
But it was Beyonce’s startling appearance that prompted her Stans to nearly commit mass suicide after these pics leaked.
One grieving Stan on the BeyonceWorld.net boards wailed:
“Oh, God, please don’t let the blogs get this image. They will try to come at Bee with that lil bit of skin folding in the back of her and probably act like she’s gettin fat!
The rumors that 200 “Africans” would be employed to support her on the set were of course wrong (as usual). Do you see any Africans in these pictures?
Thanks to Jevon Peak of Peak publicity for sending these pics!
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Young Jeezy at The Velvet Room
NBA superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and rapper Young Jeezy partied at the Velvet Room in Tucker, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) on Sunday, the night before the big game between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena yesterday. Unfortunately, the Hawks didn’t have an answer for the best front court line-up in NBA history. The Hawks lost 98-80.
Alex Gidewon of AG Entertainment, 2nd from right, with LeBron, far left, D Wade and Jeezy, was able to pull of a coup by bringing all 3 superstars to the Velvet Room on Sunday night. A local nightclub almost went to court to prevent this party from happening. The local Decatur Flavors almost lost their minds when they saw the combined sexiness of the NBA ballers and the Snowman walk into the Velvet Room together!
Dwyane Wade wearing skinny jeans with his Louis Vuitton sneakers is just so…
Visit ATLPICS.net for more pictures from the party!
Photo by Prince Williams/ATLPics.net
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