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Julie Banasiak of Jensen Beach holds her daughter Brooke, 2, at their Jensen Beach where Brooke was saved from drowning in their family pool Saturday by her brother Brady, 7. (Photo by HOBIE HILER)

JENSEN BEACH — Brady Banasiak, 7, was the hero Saturday when a birthday party for one of his aunts almost turned tragic.

The blond-haired, blue-eyed Brady saved his 2 1/2-year old sister, Brooke, from drowning after the toddler fell in the pool at the family’s home in the 500 block of Ember Way in The Pines subdivision.

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By Will Greenlee

Port St. Lucie police Wednesday were investigating an apparent murder suicide incident in which a 59-year-old man shot his wife, a police spokesman said.

Bernstein Noel is believed to have shot his 48-year-old wife, Marie Noel, early Wednesday morning and also taken his own life in a home in the 1200 block of Southwest Ingrassina Avenue, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

“Police have learned the victim’s husband called a family member early this morning (Wednesday) and claimed to have shot his wife,” Nichols said. “Once police were able to make entry into the home, found in the master bedroom lying on the bed face up was a deceased Haitian male and female.”

Nichols said each had an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Nichols said at least one other person was in the home at the time, but he could provide no further information.

Throughout the morning, friends and family came and went from the scene, situated near Southwest Ingrassina Avenue’s intersection with Southwest Savona Boulevard. Some collapsed and wailed while some embraced. A neighbor said the area has a strong Haitian presence.
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By Laurie K. Blandford

PORT ST. LUCIE — Family members remembered 9-year-old Aaron Beauchamp on Tuesday as a lover of soccer, animals, art and roller coasters — especially if he was sitting in the front seat.

A memorial service for him is today at 3 p.m. Fort Pierce Central High School auditorium, followed by burial at Beth El Memorial Park in Fort Pierce.

Sign the guestbook, share condolences here.

“He didn’t fear anything,” said Aaron’s 18-year-old cousin Jessica Ward of Port St. Lucie.

Aaron died Monday afternoon in an accident involving a St. Lucie County school bus and a tractor-trailer at the intersection of Okeechobee and Midway roads. Fifteen of the about 30 students from Frances K. Sweet Elementary School were taken to the hospital, as was the bus driver.

Jessica Ward, a Port St. Lucie High School senior, took care of Aaron’s 12-year-old brother on Tuesday while her aunt and uncle, Aaron’s parents, made funeral arrangements. Jessica Ward said she was “very, very close” with Aaron and considered her cousins two of her best friends.

Aaron played for the Mako Soccer Club for several years, and Jessica Ward said he always had to be the one to wear different colored cleats. He also loved basketball, especially the Miami Heat. She said he ate a lot of food even though he didn’t look like he did.

“He was tiny but, at the same time, muscular,” Jessica Ward said. “He had a mini-six pack.”

She said Aaron enjoyed riding roller coasters at Disney World and visiting the animals at Animal Kingdom.

“He wasn’t very shy,” Jessica Ward said. “Everybody liked him because he was very friendly and funny, and he’s very the-life-of-the-party type of thing.”

Her mom, Jackie Ward, who is Aaron’s aunt, agreed with her daughter about Aaron having no fear. She remembered one time at Disney when family members warned Aaron not to jump over a pole at Disney because he was too short, but he did it anyway — and ended up shedding a few tears from the fall.

“He didn’t care — he was going to try anything,” Jackie Ward said. “He was Mr. Personality. He gravitated to everybody. Everybody liked him. He always had a smile on his face. He was a very happy kid.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Will Greenlee

As five children remained in critical condition following a Monday school bus crash in which another child died, Florida Highway Patrol officials Tuesday continued investigating and said “on the surface,” it appears the driver of the semitrailer that collided with the bus did nothing wrong.

The 3:50 p.m. crash that left Aaron Beauchamp, 9, dead happened when the driver of a 2005 International school bus carrying about 30 students from Frances K. Sweet Elementary School turned left from westbound Okeechobee Road toward Midway Road.

The school bus, driven by Albert A. Hazen, 56, turned in front of a 1998 Peterbilt semitrailer loaded with sod and eastbound on Okeechobee Road.

Beauchamp, the son of Manatee Academy K-8 School Principal Lillian Beauchamp, was found dead in the bus.
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A crash between a semi-tractor trailer and a school bus has injured mutliple elementary school students in St. Lucie County Monday March 26, 2012. (Alex Boerner/Treasure Coast Newspapers)

By Will Greenlee, Elliott Jones

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The driver of the school bus involved in Monday’s fatal crash at Okeechobee and Midway roads is “hurting so deeply” and “torn up” about the incident, his wife said Tuesday afternoon.

Albert Hazen, 56, started as a substitute school bus driver in September 2006 after retiring in 2005 from more than two decades of service as a firefighter in Plainview, N.J. While with the city, he had no accidents, according to St. Lucie County School District personnel records.

Hazen’s wife of 34 years, Ingrid, said Tuesday that “taking care of his kids, getting them to and from point A and point B safe” is what Albert Hazen enjoys most about driving the bus.

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STUART _ Police are asking the public’s help in locating a Stuart man who has been missing since early March.

Albert Walker Sr.

Albert Walker Sr., 69, was last seen on March 2 and he contacted his wife a day later by telephone to say he was near Daytona Beach, a Stuart Police news release said. Walker suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is a patient at the VA Hospital in West Palm Beach.

His wife believes that Walker’s disspearance may be related to his health issues with diabetes, PTSD and a history of illegal drug use, police said. He was entered into the national database as a missing and endangered person by the Stuart Police Department on March 23.

Walker is described as being a black male who is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has scars on his forehead, upper left arm and lower left arm. He also wears glasses, police said. He was last seen driving a white, 2008 4-door Ford Taurus with Florida tag number E288BM.

Anyone with information about Walker’s whereabouts is asked to call the Stuart Police Department (772) 220-3900, or detective Jeffrey Kittredge at (772) 220-3911.

Arnetha Summers McIntyre

STUART — A woman has been charged in connection with the stabbing death of her live-in boyfriend, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Deputies charged Arnetha Summers McIntyre, 49, with aggravated domestic battery after responding to a Monday evening call of a stabbing. As of Tuesday, she is being held without bail at the Martin County Jail.

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Image from bus crash at Midway Road and Okeechobee Road in Fort Pierce involving a school bus. Photo by Alex Boerner

By Laurie K. Blandford, Keona Gardner

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Grief counselors are on hand Tuesday morning at Frances K. Sweet Elementary School as students come to grips with the death of a 9-year-old classmate and injuries to 14 others less than 24 hours after a school bus crashed into a semitrailer in the western end of the county.

Frances K. Sweet Elementary School student Aaron Beauchamp, of Port St. Lucie, was found dead inside bus No. 2414 Monday afternoon, after bus driver Albert A. Hazen, 56, also of Port St. Lucie turned in front of a semitrailer carrying sod at Okeechobee and Midway Roads in western St. Lucie County, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release.

About 3:50 p.m. Monday, Hazen, with a school bus of about 30 students from the Fort Pierce-based magnet school, was traveling west in the left bound lane of Okeechobee Road when he attempted a left turn on to Midway Road, the release states.

The bus turned in front of a semitrailer heading east on Okeechobee Road. The front of the truck struck the right rear side of the bus.

The impact spun the bus 180 degrees clockwise and overturned the tractor-trailer, leaving it upside down with its wheels in the air, officials said.

Three students were flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach; one in serious condition but nonlife threatening injuries and two in stable condition. One student was flown to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, the release states.

Ten students and Hazen, who sustained serious injuries, were taken by ambulance to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, FHP spokesman Lt. Jeff Johnson said. One student was transported via ambulance to St. Lucie Medical Center. These students conditions were not available.

The truck driver, Charles Cooper, 24 of Martinsville, Va., was not injured, the release states. Cooper gathered his belongings from the semitrailer after the accident but declined to comment.

Officials said the semitrailer was in the outside right lane on Okeechobee Road, and Cooper took evasive action by trying to turn to the right and applying brakes.

The school bus was equipped with seat belts but it is unknown if the students were wearing them, Johnson said. The bus also has video installed and troopers are reviewing the footage, he said.

About 16 students were uninjured and taken to the county’s Emergency Operations Center, west of Fort Pierce, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office news release.

All of the children had been picked up by their parents by 5:30 p.m. Monday.

The St. Lucie County School District used its phone system to notify parents of the crash, spokeswoman Janice Karst said.

All students who had been traveling on the bus have been accounted for, she said.

It is unknown how long Hazen has been employed with the district. Karst said the school district is conducting its own investigation into the incident.

FHP Homicide Investigator Gottfried Koblitz said he would make recommendations, in a couple months, to the State Attorney’s office regarding charges after he completes a full investigation. The traffic crash report is expected to be available in seven to 10 days.

Staff writer Lamaur Stancil contributed to this report.

A crash between a semi-tractor trailer and a school bus has injured mutliple elementary school students in St. Lucie County. (Alex Boerner/Treasure Coast Newspapers)

Frances K. Sweet Elementary School student Aaron Beauchamp, of Port St. Lucie, was found dead inside bus No. 2414, after bus driver Albert A. Hazen, 56, also of Port St. Lucie turned in front of a semitrailer carrying sod at Okeechobee and Midway Roads in western St. Lucie County, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release.

About 3:50 p.m. Monday, Hazen, with a school bus of about 30 students from the Fort Pierce-based magnet school, was traveling west in the left bound lane of Okeechobee Road when he attempted a left turn on to Midway Road, the release states.

The bus turned in front of a semitrailer heading east on Okeechobee Road. The front of the truck struck the right rear side of the bus.

The impact spun the bus 180 degrees clockwise and overturned the tractor-trailer, leaving it upside down with its wheels in the air, officials said.

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