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The victim said she noticed a hammer in the suspect's hand and asked what he was doing. She said he replied that he needed some gas, police said. The victim told Martin he needed to leave and grabbed the hammer from him. Police said he then tried to start her family's all-terrain vehicle but was unable to do so. She yelled that he needed to leave. Multiple law enforcement officers arrived on scene and established a perimeter. A K-9 deputy began tracking the suspect, who was located within a couple of minutes. The K-9 officer found Martin talking on his cellphone and ordered him to stop. Police said Martin began running in the woods, and the officer chased him. The suspect exited the woods near other deputies and surrendered, according to the report. Martin was transported to Santa Rosa County jail without incident. He was arrested on a first-degree felony charge of burglary of a dwelling or structure while armed and a first-degree misdemeanor charge of resisting without violence. He was issued no bond and will be extradited to New Orleans. According to law enforcement officials, Martin is the sole suspect in the March 3 murder of a mother and daughter. Walesha Williams, 25, and her 8-year-old daughter, Paris, were shot dead. A third victim survived the shooting.
navarrepress.com
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
Skimming devices found on local ATMs Staff report editor@navarrepress.com Recently, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office received information related to two separate incidents of ATM skimming devices – one in Milton and one in Gulf Breeze. An skimmer device can be fabricated to look like part of the actual machine, according to the sheriff’s office. Officials say a banker’s “first line of defense”is to know the local ATM machine. ■ Be familiar with the machine you use ■ Take an overall look at the machine
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Also, the county or sheriff's office must continue renting a Terhaar & Cronley building located at 7999 Armstrong Road for seven years at absolute triple net, totaling $400,000. County Administrator Hunter Walker said the county currently rents the
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requesting support to advance FDOT funding for a planned Navarre community access road corridor study, aligning it with a project development and environmental study for the widening of U.S. 98 from Portside Drive to the Okaloosa County line. Commission Chairman Don Salter is set to sign the letter if the motion is approved by the board today.
■ Be observant of any changes to the machine ■ Watch out for damaged or loose parts Skimmers are designed to capture the card’s pin number, and officials recommend covering your fingers as you enter your pin number. Some skimmers have a built-in camera to capture your pin or even a duplicate number pad placed over the original. If you suspect a machine has such a device, do not use the ATM and contact the bank as soon as possible. In addition to ATMs, skimming devices can also be placed on a Redbox.
Illegal skimming devices, like the one shown above, capture cardholders’ information.
Armstrong Road facility for $15,000 per year. "That will expand to $50,000," Walker said, noting the county's operating budget would be used to cover that expense. Additionally, the county will have nine months to complete a 768-space parking lot on Industrial Boulevard, including lighting, wheel stops and stormwater retention pond. Fol-
lowing construction, the county must transfer ownership of the parking lot to Terhaar & Cronley, retaining ownership of and responsibility for the retention pond. In September 2014, commissioners approved using economic development funds to construct a smaller 336-space parking lot at the site. County Engineer Roger Blaylock estimated
the county could construct that lot for roughly $750,000. At that time Jim Cronley appeared before commissioners, asking them to fund the infrastructure improvement to help secure lease of a 40,000-square-foot building, which ultimately did not come to fruition. Cronley said that building remains vacant but that he has prospects for a lease.
He said he was advised against commenting on the terms of the settlement. Walker said construction of the larger 768-space parking lot will be bid out and initial projected costs in 2010 totaled $920,000. At today's regular commission meeting, the board is also expected to settle a worker's compensation lawsuit with a former employee for $100,000.
Other issues on today's commission agenda include: ■ Approving a settlement with Terhaar & Cronley (see story) ■ County projects suggested for local RESTORE Act funding (see story) ■ Submission of the 201516 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Artificial Reef grant for monitoring Navarre Beach reef and Florida Boating Improvement Program grant in the amount of $10,000 for printing waterproof copies of the
Escambia/Santa Rosa Boating and Angling Guide ■ A resolution and locally funded agreement with FDOT for design and construction of a west bound right turn lane on U.S. 98 at Janet Street with a county match in the amount of $65,000. Additionally, the following Navarre issues will be addressed at tonight's county zoning board meeting: ■ The Club at Hidden Creek, LLC is seeking a conditional use request to allow recreational activities, specif-
ically an area for special events that relate to golf tournaments, within a single family residential zoning district at 7061 Pro-Am Court ■ Navarre Orleans, LLC, represented by Navarre realtor Tammy Pahal-Morgan, is requesting to rezone property located at 8145 Sierra St. and 8146 and 8148 Tavira St. from mixed-residential to medium-density residential ■ Edward Tolbert of the 8500 Block of Nelda Road is seeking to rezone a parcel from agriculture/rural to sin-
gle family residential, requesting a special exception to divide property without the required minimum road frontage. The regular county commission meeting starts at 9 a.m., and the county zoning board meeting begins at 6 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the County Administrative Complex, located at 6495 Caroline Street in Milton.Video of the meetings are available for live streaming or playback at www.santarosa.fl.gov.
in communications which include phone calls, email and social media. Noack and Wyrosdick both noted they will review the event as will an independent consultant for any improvements and recommendations to the district’s response.
“I think it’s a great school. It’s the first school my kid has ever gone to where the front door isn’t locked. The kids are polite, teachers are polite it’s a friendly atmosphere. I’ve been thrilled with the school,”Thurman said.
Safety first School officials insist students and faculty were never in danger and said a carefully prepared district protocol was followed. “Safety is and always will be my highest priority,”Noack said. The district works closely with the sheriff’s office each year on security and emergency protocols.They also have ongoing training for emergency procedures which were used several times this year at other schools, including HolleyNavarre Primary and Jay High School. The district works continually to develop and update their security protocols, though Wyrosdick said the information is not made available to the public in order to maintain the integrity of those safety procedures. Thurman, whose children previously attended school in West Virginia where incidents like this were more common, said she feels her son is safe at the school and that metal detectors probably are not necessary.
Looking ahead The investigation is still ongoing as to the source of anonymous text messages. “(Deputies) are still pressing feverishly trying to find who is the culprit associated with these texts and if we find that individual we will deal with them accordingly,”Noack said. According to Trump, schools need to engage students by teaching them exactly what constitutes a threat and communicating the severe consequences of doing so. “We can’t completely eliminate them but we can do a better job at preventing them in the first place.” Wyrosdick said parents and teachers are a“lifeline”of information and even prevented a possible suicide earlier this school year. “There is nothing more valuable than a mom or dad who receives information from their child and shares it with us,”Wyrosdick said. “We have averted major incidents because a teacher or parent or counselor or deputy heard something and said something.”
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In the days following the threat, parents and community members debated how the school dealt with the situation and whether the district should have handled it differently. Communication error Thurman did not receive official word from the school until 11 a.m. when she answered a robo-call from Principal Noack Brian Noack; earlier that morning, Wy r o s d i c k decided at what time the school should alert parents. Wyrosdick “Our first reaction is to communicate with parents and students. Even as of 8 a.m. (that) morning, we had an algorithm in place by 9 a.m.,”he said of the time it took for the threat to be evaluated and when parents should be notified.“Once we reached a certain threshold I very clearly made the call to call parents.” Before she received that call,Thurman looked to Facebook because she said it was the only place she could find information after the phone lines at the school were overloaded. “I had no idea what was going on. Some kids were telling parents there was going to be a shooting in the 300 hallway. Others said they were targeting football players,” said Thurman, whose son plays football at the school. Thurman said parents were in a panic and leaving work because they didn't know what was happening. "My main complaint is they didn't notify me," she said. “All I wanted was, the night before, a call with the information about the threat, that they are investigating it and that extra police officers will be at the school as a precaution."
Photo by Shana Roberson
Students stand outside of Navarre High School Monday, nearly a week after a gun threat. Credible or not In a voicemail to parents, Noack said the school was not placed on lockdown because the threat was never determined to be imminent or credible. School security expert Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, said the sit- Trump uation at NHS was fairly common and that the school’s reaction deserves recognition as the proper response. “That’s to their credit,”he said.“We are seeing far too many schools across the country prematurely and unnecessarily evacuate and even close school due to vague threats that lack credibility. Far too many schools evacuate and assess instead of assess then evacuate.” The National School Safety and Security Services recently reviewed 812 school threats across the country for the first half of the 2014-15 school year. The review determined that 30 percent of schools were evacuated and 10 percent closed down. “To a parent it seems very logical that if a threat is made at school get the kid out, it gets rid of the threat,”he said.“In
reality, if schools evacuate, you don’t know what the kids are evacuating into. Once they leave the building you lose control and supervision and you may be putting them in a less safe situation. The threat may have been made to lure them outside.” When reviewing a threat’s credibility, both Trump and Wyrosdick said the determination is made on a case-bycase basis. “I think all threats are unique in a sense,”Wyrosdick said, adding that the district worked closely with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.“We reacted with the information that was presented to us at the time.” Thurman said based on the information she has received since the incident occurred, including the anonymous nature of the text messages as well as the subsequent investigation, she believed the threat was credible and she would have chosen to keep her son home for the day. Thurman pointed out that part of the problem could be attributed to the school’s lack of experience in dealing with such a situation. She said that fact was more apparent the following week when she still had not received a letter of explanation from the school – something she had come to expect from previous districts.
“It’s not that I don’t believe the school couldn’t handle it,” she said.“I love this school, I think it’s a wonderful school. I think they need to review the way they are getting communication to parents so panic doesn’t spread.” Noack acknowledged that parents had a valid concern in that they should’ve been made aware of the information sooner in time to decide whether to send their children to school. According to Trump, school administrators face added pressure because technology presents new ways to make threats as well as well as an outlet to rapidly spread false information. Noack said once administrators realized misinformation was spreading, they acted quickly. “Unfortunately, it spread like wildfire,”he said.“Rumors get to be a part of that. We wanted to give the parents some of what I feel was accurate and timely information to try to inform them.” According to Trump, schools are often behind the curve in their mass communication strategy. “Our society as a whole thrives on transparency and instant communication,”Trump said.“Schools will always be a little behind so they can be accurate, but they still need to have a better strategy in place.” He recommends redundancy
Submitted photo
School threats study National School Safety and Security Services reviewed 812 school threats reported across the country from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31, 2014.
37% were electronic threats. 28% were made on social media sites. 44% were bomb threats. 29% were shooting threats. ■ Applications that allow anonymous posts, such as Yik Yak, After School and Whisper, were used in 45 of the threats. ■ High schools received 70% of threats, middle schools received 18% and elementary schools received 10%. ■ 30% of the threats resulted in evacuation. ■ 10% of schools closed for at least one day. ■ Florida ranked No. 5 with 43 threats reported during the first five months of the school year. ■ Of the 320 arrests made nationwide due to the threats, most were children ages 8 to 18.