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KANNAPOLIS Train strike kills 2 near nursing home in Kannapolis
An Amtrak train from Charlotte to Raleigh struck and killed two pedestrians in downtown Kannapolis Friday night, according to Amtrak.
Train 76, the Piedmont, hit the people at 5:58 p.m., one mile north of the city's train station. None of the 100 people on the train were injured, said Karina Romero, an Amtrak spokesperson.
The people killed were reportedly residents of the Britthaven, a nursing home on North Cannon Boulevard, which runs parallel to the train tracks. April Roberts, a Britthaven administrator, issued a statement Friday night that said residents and staff are "deeply saddened" by the accident.
She said counseling would be available to help residents and employees cope.
The train left for Raleigh at 8:07 p.m. Steve Harrison
Meck briefs
Charlotte
Five people were injured, one seriously, in a multiple-vehicle collision early Friday afternoon in northwest Charlotte.
The wreck was reported about 12:45 p.m. at the intersection of Kerns and Mount Holly-Huntersville roads, a short distance from Northlake Mall.
A spokesman for Medic, the county's emergency medical service, said four of the injured were taken to Carolinas Medical Center and the other to Presbyterian Hospital-Huntersville. The victim with life-threatening injuries was among those transported to CMC.
Charlotte fire officials say four people were trapped briefly in the wreckage before being freed by firefighters.
Traffic was heavy at the time, with thousands of people visiting Northlake Mall and other nearby stores on Black Friday. Steve Lyttle
Regional briefs
Buncombe County Asheville
Police say a man kidnapped an elderly woman while she sat in a car outside an Asheville hospital where she was being discharged.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Friday that 29-year-old Anthony Blaine Messer is accused of second-degree kidnapping, theft of a motor vehicle and other charges.
Police say a 77-year-old woman wearing a gown, house coat and slippers was in the front passenger seat of her car while her daughter went back into Mission Hospital to get something.
Police say Messer hopped into the car and drove to a restaurant where she was told to get out.
The woman said she considered fighting the man even though she was recovering from vascular surgery. Associated Press
Gaston County Gastonia
Two Gastonia residents were awakened early Thanksgiving morning and robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint, police say.
A man and woman said they were asleep when four men broke into their home. The intruders robbed the residents of $350 cash, an assortment of jewelry and two cell phones, police say. During the robbery, one of the intruders reportedly held a knife to a victim's throat.
Police have not released a description of the gunmen, and no arrests have been reported. The residents were not physically injured. Steve Lyttle
Wake County Raleigh
An N.C. couple has been sentenced on misdemeanor charges in a case involving abusing other adults during Satan worship.
WRAL reported that 25-year-old Joseph Scott Craig and his 30-year-old wife, Joy Johnson, were each sentenced Friday to two 60-day suspended sentences and a year of probation.
Search warrants said the victims were a man and a woman who moved in with Craig and Johnson after they became friends through their satanic interests.
The victims say Craig beat them, shackled them to beds, kept them in dog cages and starved them.
Craig entered an Alford plea, which means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. Johnson pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting her husband. Associated Press
South Carolina
Charleston
People wearing a seat belt when they are stopped by the S.C. Highway Patrol in three counties will get a coupon for a free chicken sandwich.
The Highway Patrol is working with Chick-fil-A in Charleston, Berkley and Dorchester counties to encourage seat belt use. The offer is good through the New Year's holiday.
Lance Cpl. Bob Beres says troopers won't stop people wearing seat belts just to give them a free sandwich. Beres says coupons will be given out at driver safety-checkpoints, as well as to those stopped for violations.
He says violators will still get the ticket. Associated Press
A huge right whale with a distinctive white knob on her head who shows up off the S.C. coast every few years now has an official name, "Palmetto."
The New England Aquarium has granted the wish of some S.C. elementary school children to name the whale for the state's symbolic tree.
The New England Aquarium catalogues individual whales and names them as a personal touch.
Students at Alice Drive Elementary in Sumter recommended the name "Palmetto." The students were impressed when they found a picture of the whale that looked like she had a palmetto outline on the back of her head.
Last year, 121 individual whales were spotted off South Carolina. Fewer than 400 right whales are known to exist. Associated Press
Summerville
A woman has settled a lawsuit after her son was stabbed to death in an S.C. prison four years ago, and hopes officials look more closely at where prisoners are assigned.
Sandra Carter was upset that her son Justin Bregenzer, a 22-year-old nonviolent offender, was housed near an inmate already convicted of killing two people, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Friday.
Bregenzer was stabbed at the Lieber Correctional Institution near Ridgeville in 2005. Kenneth Henry Justus, 42, has been sentenced to death for killing Bregenzer.
Carter reached an out-of-court settlement of $47,500 last month with the Corrections Department, which did not admit wrongdoing in Bregenzer's death. Nor did the agency promise to change the way it assigns inmates to prisons.
She said she wants prison administrators to look beyond their regulations and consider the potential dangers of housing violent criminals near the nonviolent.
"It's not a big settlement," Carter said. "But they know they screwed up."
Bregenzer had broken into cars in Mount Pleasant and failed to complete a shock incarceration program. He was ordered to finish his sentence as a youthful offender in the prison system.
Justus was serving two life prison sentences for killing two people in northwestern South Carolina when Bregenzer was stabbed. Justus said last year that he would plead guilty and wanted the death penalty. Prosecutors agreed, and he was sentenced to die. Associated Press
