Fellsmere family begins work on their Habitat home

Man shot after charging at deputy with small sword

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A 29-year-old man who was shot by a deputy after charging at the officer with a small sword, was hospitalized late Friday, officials said. The unidentified man was taken by ambulance to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, Indian River County sheriff's spokesman Maj. Eric Flowers said. The deputy who fired the shot was not injured. The deputy was placed on paid administrative leave, which is protocol for police-involved shootings. Neither the deputy's name nor the man's name were released Friday. The incident unfolded about 7 p.m. Friday after deputies received a series of calls about a disturbance at a home at 12th Street Southwest and 35th Avenue Southwest in the Grovenor ...

Mom ‘not giving up’ after losing everything in Vero house fire

VERO BEACH — It seemed like forever. Vero Beach mother Sabby Hightower had just gotten out of the shower, watching in horror as flames burst forward from her garage, forcing her, her four kids and her own mother to frantically run to safety. The Nov. 3 blaze destroyed the home, but the family escaped unharmed. "I'm not giving up," said Hightower, a single mother who was recently widowed. "I do not want my kids to ever give up on life." The community is now coming together to help Hightower and her family. It is a story of resilience as Hightower lost her father and husband in recent years, and then watched her home erupt in flames nearly two weeks ago. The ...

Mother of slain teen: ‘Find who killed my son’

Hours before Christard Hicks was shot and killed along a street in Gifford, he was talking with his sister on the phone about going to his mother's home. It was just nearly a week shy of what would've been his 20th birthday - edging closer to adulthood. But instead of a party, family members are now mourning the loss of a young man they said was full of life with dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. "We both said we love each other," said the teen's sister, Ernecia Hicks, 23, of Melbourne. " We were pretty close and talked everyday." Christard Hicks, 19, was only three classes short of earning his high school diploma before his life was cut ...