LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Saget, the actor-comedian known for his role as beloved single dad Danny Tanner on the sitcom “Full House” and as the wisecracking host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” died while on a stand-up tour. He was 65.
Deputies in Orange County, Florida, were called Sunday about an “unresponsive man” in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando and found Saget dead, according to a sheriff’s statement on Twitter. Detectives found “no signs of foul play or drug use in this case.”
Saget was in Florida as part of his “I Don’t Do Negative Comedy Tour.” After warm audience receptions to his gigs Friday in Orlando and Saturday in the Ponte Vedra Beach resort area, he celebrated online.
“I’m back in comedy like I was when I was 26. I guess I’m finding my new voice and loving every moment of it,” he posted Saturday on Instagram.
Fellow comedians and friends praised Saget not only for his wit, but his kindness.
In a statement Sunday, Saget’s family members said they are “devastated to confirm that our beloved Bob passed away today.... Though we ask for privacy at this time, we invite you to join us in remembering the love and laughter that Bob brought to the world.”
Raunchy comedy wasn’t part of his long-running network TV shows. He hosted the family friendly “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and played the squeaky clean widower and dad to three young girls on “Full House,” the ABC sitcom that also brought fame to Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley when it debuted in 1987.
Saget had daughters Aubrey, Lara and Jennifer with first wife Sherri Kramer before divorcing in 1997. He married Kelly Rizzo in 2018.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two gunmen fired more than 65 rounds on a Philadelphia street, sending nighttime pedestrians on a busy block teeming with markets and restaurants scrambling for cover & injuring 6 people, at least 1 of them critically.
Police responded around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the Germantown neighborhood & found a 21-year-old woman shot multiple times in the abdomen & chest & lying near dozens of spent casings. Officers rushed her to the hospital, where she was in critical condition Friday.
Five men ages 19 to 29 were taken with gunshot wounds by private vehicles to two hospitals. All were expected to survive.
Officers are looking at surveillance footage, Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters late Thursday.
The injured woman, who suffered the most gunshot wounds, may have been the intended target, Small said. But the extensive crime scene — with a sea of casings on Germantown Avenue & bullets from at least two different-caliber semiautomatic weapons striking parked cars — made it difficult to be certain.
“The fact that we found over 65 spent shell casings — that’s a whole lot of shots fired — so it’s hard to even say who is the intended target & who is struck by stray gunfire,” Small said.
A Philadelphia city website tracking shooting victims & homicides showed that as of Tuesday, there were 1,827 nonfatal shooting victims in 2021, an increase of more than 600 from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Philadelphia police showed 559 homicides going into the last day of 2021, the most recorded since the city began tracking in 1960.
Early Wednesday, dance historians and lovers of all things hip-hop were saddened by reports that Adolfo Quinones, more commonly known as Shabba-Doo, had died.
The dancer-actor-choreographer — a founding member of The Original Lockers, whose pioneer moves as part of the street-dancing dynamos inspired a generation and fueled a culture — was 65. As as early Wednesday, no cause of death or any other information had been announced.
Just a day before, Quinones, who was known for his acrobatic poplocking skills and roles in the 1984 films Breakin’ and sequel Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo seven months later, had posted on Instagram about falling ill. He was pictured lying in bed, but he was thrilled that his test for coronavirus had come back negative.
“Good news y’all! I’m feeling all better,” the Chicago-born and raised Quinones wrote. “I’m just a wee bit sluggish from my cold, but the good news is I’m Covid 19 negative! Woo hoo!!!”
At 8 a.m. PST, social media found itself rocked by news of Quinones’ death, delivered via fellow Lockers legend and longtime Quinones pal Toni Basil.
“It is with extreme sadness The Lockers family announces the unexpected passing of our beloved Adolfo Shabba-doo Quinones,” she announced.
Eddie Van Halen -- the legendary guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen -- has died after a long battle with throat cancer ... TMZ has learned.
Sources directly connected to the rock star tell us ... he died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica Tuesday. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and drummer.
We're told in the last 72 hours Eddie's ongoing health battle went massively downhill -- doctors discovered his throat cancer had moved to his brain as well as other organs.
As you know, Eddie has been battling cancer for well over a decade. Our sources say he's been in and out of the hospital over the past year -- including last November for intestinal issues -- and recently underwent a round of chemo.
Last year we reported ... Eddie was flying between the US and Germany for 5 years to get radiation treatment. Though he was a heavy smoker for years, he believes he developed throat cancer from a metal guitar pick he used to frequently hold in his mouth more than 20 years ago.
Eddie formed the classic rock group in Pasadena in 1972 with his brother, Alex, on drums, Michael Anthony on bass and David Lee Roth singing. Eddie served as the main songwriter on their self-titled debut album in 1978 ... which launched the group into rock superstardom in the '80s.
They went on to pump out hit after hit, including "Runnin' with the Devil," "Unchained," "Hot for Teacher," "Panama" and "Jump" ... and continued their success with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals after the departure of Roth in 1985.
While the band had already achieved hard rock superstardom, Eddie became a pop culture icon with the 1983 release of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" ... which featured Eddie's iconic guitar solo.
Van Halen was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, and Eddie is widely considered one the greatest guitar players of all time.
He is survived by his wife Janie and his son, Wolfgang.
CHICAGO - Two men charged in the 2015 slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee received their sentences Wednesday morning.
Convicted gunman Dwirght Boone-Doty was sentenced to 90 in prison.
Corey Morgan, who was charged with first-degree murder in October, was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that the Nov. 2, 2015, "execution" of Tyshawn Lee was carried out as revenge on a rival gang member, that Morgan and two others believed the fourth grader's father was responsible for a shooting weeks earlier that left Morgan's brother dead and his mother wounded.
Boone-Doty befriended Tyshawn to gain his trust after the boy arrived at the park, prosecutors said. He picked up the basketball that boy had brought to the park, lured him into a nearby alley and shot him with a .40-caliber handgun multiple times at close range while Morgan watched from an SUV, they said.
A third man charged in the attack, Kevin Edwards, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder before going on trial. Edwards, who prosecutors described as the getaway driver, received a 25-year prison sentence in exchange for his plea.
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - A woman accused of sending a Paradise Valley man 65,000 text message tried to explain her actions in a jailhouse interview Thursday.
"I love him," she said.
Police say 31-year-old Jacqueline Claire Ades of Phoenix met the victim online and went on one date with him before she began sending him thousands of texts, breaking into his home, and showing up at his workplace claiming to be his wife.
"I felt like I met my soul mate and I thought we would just do what everybody else did and we would get married and everything would be fine," Ades told us.
During her jailhouse interview Thursday, Ades was asked why she sent the victim so many texts.
"Because it made me find out all my information," she said. "Loving him selflessly brought me his information. Because everybody just wants to take.
But if you just give and you don't stop giving, you will all of a sudden receive a lot."
Police say some of those messages Ades sent the victim were threatening, and included:
"Don't ever try to leave me... I'll kill you... I don't wanna be a murderer!"
"I hope you die... you rotten filthy Jew."
"I'm like the new Hitler... man was a genius."
"I'd wear your fascia 'n the top of your skull 'n your hands 'n feet."
"Oh, what I would do w/your blood... I'd wanna bathe in it."
Ades was arrested Tuesday, May 8.
She was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail on charges of threatening, stalking, harassment and failure to appear.
Ades is set to appear in court May 15. She is being held without bond.
During her interviews, Ades would answer a question or two, then deflect the next one.
She veered from topic to topic, rambling about Einstein, the Dead Sea, the birth chart of Jesus and the symbolism of the markings on a dollar bill.
At one point, she told a reporter, "I don't want to talk about that. You have negative energy."
Ades was asked directly, "Are you crazy?"
"No," she replied. "I am the person that [sic] discovered love."
When confronted about the fact that 65,000 text messages seemed more threatening than loving, she replied, "When you find love, everything is not perfect. I love him."
She was asked if she would now leave the victim alone.
"If he wants me to," she said. If [Victim] wants me to go to jail, I should go to jail."
She then said, "He's the meanest person I've ever met. " But in the next breath, she said, "He's my soulmate."
When asked why she decided to speak to reporters, Ades said, "I have to share the message of love. Everybody has to love each other."
Police were called and seized the drugs. An investigation has been launched to find out how this could have happened.
"We were still pretty fearful our home would be broken into, and we didn't sleep there for a few days,” the couple told WFTV.
After trying unsuccessfully for a month to reach a supervisor, Amazon eventually sent them a $150 gift card with a note saying "they were unable to do anything else at this time."
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Natalie Cole, the Grammy-winning daughter of Nat "King" Cole" who carried on her late father's musical legacy and, through technology, shared a duet with him on "Unforgettable," has died. She was 65.
Natalie died Thursday evening at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles due to compilations from ongoing health issues, her family said in a statement.
"Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived ... with dignity, strength and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever," read the statement from her son Robert Yancy and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole.
Cole had battled drug problems and hepatitis that forced her to undergo a kidney transplant in May 2009. Cole's older sister, Carol "Cookie" Cole, died the day she received the transplant. Their brother, Nat Kelly Cole, died in 1995.
Natalie Cole was inspired by her dad at an early age and auditioned to sing with him when she was just 11 years old. She was 15 when he died of lung cancer, in 1965.
She began as an R&B singer but later gravitated toward the smooth pop and jazz standards that her father loved.
Cole's greatest success came with her 1991 album, "Unforgettable ... With Love," which paid tribute to her father with reworked versions of some of his best-known songs, including "That Sunday That Summer," ''Too Young" and "Mona Lisa."
Her voice was spliced with her dad's in the title cut, offering a delicate duet a quarter-century after his death.
The album sold some 14 million copies and won six Grammys, including album of the year as well record and song of the year for the title track duet.
While making the album, Cole told The Associated Press in 1991, she had to "throw out every R&B lick that I had ever learned and every pop trick I had ever learned. With him, the music was in the background and the voice was in the front."
"I didn't shed really any real tears until the album was over," Cole said. "Then I cried a whole lot. When we started the project it was a way of reconnecting with my dad. Then when we did the last song, I had to say goodbye again."
She was also nominated for an Emmy award in 1992 for a televised performance of her father's songs.
"That was really my thank you," she told People magazine in 2006. "I owed that to him."
Another father-daughter duet, "When I Fall in Love," won a 1996 Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals, and a follow-up album, "Still Unforgettable," won for best traditional pop vocal album of 2008.
Cole made her recording debut in 1975 with "Inseparable." The music industry welcomed her with two Grammy awards — one for best new artist and one for best female R&B vocal performance for her buoyant hit "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)."
She also worked as an actress, with appearances on TV's "Touched by an Angel" and "Grey's Anatomy."
But she was happiest touring and performing live.
"I still love recording and still love the stage," she said on her website in 2008, "but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band."
Cole was born in 1950 to Nat "King" Cole and his wife, Maria Ellington Cole, a onetime vocalist with Duke Ellington who was no relation to the great bandleader.
Her father was already a recording star, and he rose to greater heights in the 1950s and early '60s. He toured worldwide, and in 1956 he became the first black entertainer to host a national TV variety show, though poor ratings and lack of sponsors killed it off the following year. He also appeared in a few movies and spoke out in favor of civil rights.
Natalie Cole grew up in Los Angeles' posh Hancock Park neighborhood, where her parents had settled in 1948 despite animosity from some white residents about having the black singer as a neighbor. When told by residents didn't want "undesirable people" in the area, the singer said, "Neither do I, and if I see (any), I'll be the first to complain."
The family eventually included five children.
Natalie Cole started singing seriously in college, performing in small clubs.
But in her 2000 autobiography, "Angel on My Shoulder," Cole discussed how she had battled heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol addiction for many years. She spent six months in rehab in 1983.
When she announced in 2008 that she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood, she blamed her past intravenous drug use.
She criticized the Recording Academy for giving five Grammys to drug user Amy Winehouse in 2008.
"I'm an ex-drug addict and I don't take that kind of stuff lightly," Cole explained at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Hepatitis C "stayed in my body for 25 years and it could still happen to this young woman or other addicts who are fooling around with drugs, especially needles."
Cole received chemotherapy to treat the hepatitis and "within four months, I had kidney failure," she told CNN's Larry King in 2009. She needed dialysis three times a week until she received a donor kidney on May 18, 2009. The organ procurement agency One Legacy facilitated the donation from a family that had requested that their donor's organ go to Cole if it was a match.
Cole toured through much of her illness, often receiving dialysis at hospitals around the globe.
"I think that I am a walking testimony to you can have scars," she told People magazine. "You can go through turbulent times and still have victory in your life."
(CNN) A swarm of gunmen stormed a Kenya university before dawn Thursday, opening fire and taking hostages.
At least 15 people were killed at Garissa University College, the Kenyan Interior Ministry said. As many as 550 others are unaccounted for at the campus that had about 815 students, according to CNN affiliate Citizen TV.
All staff members are accounted for "and are helping with the tracking of students," the Kenya National Disaster Operation Center said on Twitter.
The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.
Gunmen burst into early morning Christian prayers, said Joel Ayora, who was on the campus and witnessed the attack. Taking hostages from the service, the gunmen then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims."
The attackers separated students by religion, allowing Muslims to leave and keeping an unknown number of Christians hostage, Agence France-Press reported.
"We were sleeping when we heard a loud explosion that was followed by gunshots and everyone started running for safety," said student Japhet Mwala.
"There are those who were not able to leave the hostels where the gunmen headed and started firing. I am lucky to be alive because I jumped through the fence with other students."
Eventually, as many as 50 students were freed, and at least 65 people were hospitalized from the attack, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
Nine hours after the attack began, heavy gunfire and explosions continued, said Dennis Okari of CNN affiliate NTV.
Okari said he was told to take cover as hundreds of students fled, some crawling.
Security and ministry officials said one terrorist was arrested as he tried to slip through the security cordon and flee the scene.
Kenyan forces cleared three of four dormitories and had cornered the militants in the last one, the Interior Ministry said.
Photo of wanted man released
The ministry posted a "Most Wanted" notice for a man in connection with the attack. The notice offers a reward of 20 million Kenyan shillings, which is about $215,000. The name listed is Mohamed Mohamud.
The post does not say what role the man may have played in the attack, if any.
It includes the words "Kaa Chonjo," which means to be on the lookout.
President: Kenya suffering from police shortage
Garissa is about 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border with Somalia. Al-Shabaab militants have often launched attacks inside Kenya ever since the Kenyan government sent troops across the border to fight the group.
"This is a moment for everyone throughout the country to be vigilant as we continue to confront and defeat our enemies," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said.
He called on the inspector-general of police "to take urgent steps" to ensure that 10,000 recruits whose enrollment is pending "promptly report for training at the Kenya Police College, Kiganjo. I take full responsibility for this directive. We have suffered unnecessarily due to shortage of security personnel. Kenya badly needs additional officers, and I will not keep the nation waiting."
Waking up to terror
The gunshots started going off "like fireworks" around 5 a.m. at the time of the morning prayers, witness Milka Ndung'u told NTV. She and others escaped to a field, but gunshots followed them.
Augustine Alanga told CNN he woke up to the sound of gunfire and described students running around, seeking safety.
Assailants forced their way onto the campus by shooting at guards at the front gates, Kenya National Police said.
From there, attackers moved into a nearby girls' hostel, the Red Cross said.
It's not clear how many gunmen were on campus.
"We don't know how many there were, but there are probably more than 10," said Robert Alai Onyango, a blogger in Nairobi. "We believe the attackers were wearing something close to military fatigues."
Onyango said the attackers appeared to be shooting indiscriminately and "basically from all angles."
"They surrounded the mosque ... we don't know why they were surrounding the mosque," Onyango said.
About 300 students who escaped sought refuge at a Kenya Defense Forces camp, local newspaper journalist Steven Astariko said.
"We are saddened & angered by today's terrorist attack @ #Garissa Univ.," the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi tweeted. "Our deepest condolences 2 family/friends of victims."
The university was established in 2011 and is the only public university in the region.
There are usually 800 students in the dormitories when school is in session, Jackstone Kweyu, dean of students, told Citizen TV. There are 1,000 staff members on a normal workday, he said. And there are usually four guards at the campus gates overnight.
The Kenyan Red Cross and the country's health ministry are organizing a blood drive to help the victims.
Al-Shabaab's carnage in Kenya
The dangerously porous border between Somalia and Kenya has made it easy for Al-Shabaab militants to cross over and carry out attacks.
The deadliest assault by Al-Shabaab in Kenya was in September 2013 when the group attacked the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, killing 67 people.
In a December attack on a quarry, Al-Shabaab militants separated Muslims and executed the non-Muslims, a spokesman for the group said.
Last month, the U.S. Embassy warned of possible attacks "throughout Kenya in the near-term" following the reported death of a key al-Shabaab leader, Adan Garaar.
"Although there is no information about a specific location in Kenya for an attack, U.S. citizens are reminded that the potential for terrorism exists," the warning said.
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