Man With Violent Criminal Past Slams Car Into Middlesex Hospital Entrance, Sets Himself On Fire
February 23, 2018 by admin
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Steven Ellam, a Middletown man with a violent criminal history dating back more than a decade, intentionally rammed his car through the emergency room entrance at Middlesex Hospital Thursday morning before setting himself on fire, officials said. They did not say what motivated his act.
Ellam, 27, lives at 66 Milardo Lane, where federal, state and local authorities went to search for explosives and other evidence, officials said, as concerned neighbors looked on.
“This is a precautionary measure,” Mayor Dan Drew said at an afternoon press conference.
About 10 a.m., Ellam crashed his Chevrolet Cobalt through the emergency room entrance doors of the hospital at 28 Crescent St., then doused himself in a liquid and ignited himself, said Police Chief William McKenna. In video shared with The Courant by a witness, smoke and flames can be seen billowing out of the emergency entrance as medical staff rush to help Ellam, who is on the sidewalk, outside the doors.
The fire prompted an extensive response from city firefighters and police. Ellam was flown by Life Star helicopter to Bridgeport Hospital, but officials said they did not know his condition as of Thursday evening.
Bomb squads from Hartford and state police converged on the hospital and searched the car, finding cans with flammable liquid inside, Drew said. The liquids were sent to the state forensic lab for testing.
Officials said Ellam’s act was intentional, but said late Thursday that they could not yet comment on a motive. When asked if it was an act of terrorism, Drew declined to comment.
A hospital security guard was hospitalized for smoke inhalation while evacuating patients and staff following the crash, said Middlesex Vice President of Operations David Giuffrida. No other injuries were reported.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene. FBI New Haven Division Chief Patricia Ferrick said: “The FBI is assisting local law enforcement with this unfolding investigation at Middlesex Hospital.”
Drew said the city increased security at public facilities, including schools, but only as a precaution.
“I want to make clear that the people of Middletown are safe, we believe this was an isolated incident and we believe that there is no threat to the community,” Drew said at the press conference.
Middletown police Capt. Gary Wallace said officers made an initial sweep of Ellam’s Milardo Lane home to determine if anyone else was in danger, but then left the house to obtain a search warrant for a further probe.
Ellam has an extensive criminal history that began when he was 14, Wallace said.
According to Connecticut’s criminal convictions database, Ellam was sentenced to 33 months in prison for an attack on a woman in June 2013 in Middletown. He pleaded guilty to first-degree strangulation, interfering with police officers and violating probation. Middletown police said at the time that Ellam accused the woman of having sinned, and that he told her she would have to repent. Police said the badly beaten woman was able to call 911.
In 2010, Ellam was charged with assaulting his father, who had confronted him over his drinking, police said. Records show he has additional arrests for assault, a hit-and-run car accident and drunken driving.
A LinkedIn profile for a Middletown man named Steven Ellam reads a job title of “Butcher of souls at Earth/Hell/everywhere in the galaxy.”
Thursday’s crash sent patients and staff members scrambling for safety. Hospital officials said there were about 30 patients and 20 staff members in the emergency room area at the time.
T.J. O’Brien of Northford said he arrived at the hospital for an appointment at about 10 a.m., minutes after the crash.
“About a minute after that, someone came running out of the fire in his birthday suit screaming ‘Oh my God,’” O’Brien said.
Lindsey Heidel and Ali Mielczarski were nearby when news spread of the incident. The two live nearby and came to see the scene.
“We didn’t believe it at first,” Heidel said. “This is just insane. You don’t expect it from anyone.”
Heidel said a friend of hers was leaving the hospital just minutes before the car rammed into the emergency department entrance. Mielczarski said her aunt works in the hospital but was not hurt.
“She’s worked here for 35 years. She’s probably shocked,” Mielczarski said.
On Milardo Lane, residents said the presence of police at their neighbor’s home was unsettling.
Not long after the car crashed into the hospital, Bill Wilson, who parked his car on Milardo Lane midday Thursday, got a text from his sister, who worked there. She said: “I am just giving you a heads-up. I’m OK.”
Soon Wilson heard from his friend, who lives on Milardo Lane, about a police presence and said he could go over to check it out. “I am going to stop by to see everything is OK. That’s when I saw everyone,” Wilson said of the local, state and federal investigators.
“We knew the person who lived in the house. We didn’t know any younger person [there],” Wilson said. “[My friend’s] concern was something bad would happen and his kid is getting out of school soon. … That was their worry.”
In this secluded residential area, Wilson said: “You don’t expect this. I didn’t expect this.”
Lou DiMauro has lived several houses down on Milardo Lane for 10 years and knew the owner well, recalling block parties at the home. But that man moved to Florida about six years ago. In the times since, he said a son or grandson of the owner had moved in. “I saw him out there cutting the grass a few times, but that’s it,” DiMauro said.
“Very quiet, very quiet,” DiMauro said of the man living in the home. “The whole neighborhood is quiet.”
DiMauro, standing on his deck looking out at the investigators, said: “You just don’t know anymore. It’s just the way it is.”
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Hartford HealthCare increased security at its emergency departments as a precaution, spokesperson Shawn Mawhiney said in a statement.
He said MidState Medical Center, both campuses of the Hospital of Central Connecticut and Hartford Hospital are accepting patients while the Middlesex Hospital emergency room is closed.
Middlesex Hospital officials said it would be closed until further notice. They have barred patient visitation unless under special circumstances and canceled all non-emergent surgeries on Friday. People should not come to the hospital for tests, either, they said.
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SpaceX launches demo satellites for its high-speed internet project
February 23, 2018 by admin
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Elon Musk’s goal of delivering high-speed internet to the world just got a little closer to reality.
SpaceX on Thursday launched a rocket carrying two experimental satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellites will test out the technology the company plans to use for its internet service, according to public filings.
The company kept the test satellites largely under wraps and chose to focus on the primary payload for Thursday’s launch — a defense and security satellite for the Spanish government called PAZ.
But Musk confirmed in a tweet the small internet satellites, which hitched a ride along with PAZ, made it into orbit. He said the satellites, nicknamed “Tintin A” and “Tintin B,” will attempt to beam the words “hello world” when they pass over Los Angeles Friday morning.
Tintin A B will attempt to beam “hello world” in about 22 hours when they pass near LA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018
SpaceX’s internet ambitions have the support of Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai. On February 14, Pai urged the FCC to approve SpaceX’s broader proposal to deliver “broadband services directly to [people] anywhere in the United States or around the world” at speeds similar to the quickest ground-based internet connections.
SpaceX eventually wants to put more than 10,000 tiny satellites into Low-Earth Orbit. The satellites will whisk around the planet about 335 km (208 miles) to 1,325 km (823 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
Billions of people around the globe still lack internet access, so companies have been racing to find a better way to beam internet down from the sky.
Related: FCC chairman backs SpaceX plan for internet satellites
They include OneWeb, a startup that’s attracted backing from the likes of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Coca-Cola (KO) and Qualcomm (QCOM). It has approval from the FCC to send internet satellites into orbit.
If SpaceX gets approval for its satellite project, it’ll be a first for an American-based company to join the race to provide internet via Low-Earth Orbit satellites, FCC Chairman Pai said.
Some of SpaceX’s internal financial documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal last year show the company has high expectations for this satellite network.
“SpaceX projected the satellite-internet business would have over 40 million subscribers and bring in more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025,” the Journal reported.
The PAZ satellite that SpaceX delivered for the Spanish government will stay in orbit for about five and a half years, making full loops around Earth 15 times per day, according to Airbus, the primary contractor for Paz. And it will capture images of our home planet — day or night and no matter what the weather looks like — using radar technology.
Earlier this month, SpaceX drew public attention with the launch of its massive new rocket, Falcon Heavy, which is now the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
There are plans to fly a communications satellite and a payload for the U.S. Air Force on board a Falcon Heavy later this year. But Thursday’s launch used a Falcon 9, the rocket SpaceX has flown since 2010.
SpaceX is famous for its gravity-defying attempts to land rocket boosters after launch. It’s successfully completed the task after more than 20 launches. The boosters — which account for about 60% of the cost of a rocket — are guided home so they can be reused on future missions, which brings down the cost of a single launch.
The rocket flown on Thursday used one of those pre-flown boosters, but SpaceX did not attempt another landing.
It did, however, attempt to recover the rocket’s fairing, which is the white nose cone at the tip of the rocket that protects the satellites during launch.
A large ship outfitted with an enormous net, nicknamed “Mr. Steven,” went out to sea in an attempt to catch the fairing.
A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 22, 2018 at 6:07am PST
Musk confirmed via social media that the fairing missed the boat, but landed in one piece nearby.
A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 22, 2018 at 7:36am PST
“Missed by a few hundred meters, but fairing landed intact in water,” Musk posted on Twitter. “Should be able catch it with slightly bigger chutes to slow down descent.”
–Seth Fiegerman and Dave Goldman contributed to this report.