Fort Pierce Police Chief Sean Baldwin shakes Mark Steele's hand after the academy cadet found the gun believed to have been used in Friday's fatal shooting.

Steele, 20, and 15 other cadets enrolled at Indian River State College were asked to find the gun used in a Friday night shooting that left a Fort Pierce man dead in what is thought to have been retaliation for his beating a woman earlier that evening.

The woman’s brother, Fort Pierce resident Jeremiah Minatee, 18, was arrested Sunday in connection with the shooting.

Minatee has denied the charges and police hadn’t been able to find a key piece of evidence: the gun. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — By the time 16-year-old Ryan Rust of Port St. Lucie turns 30, he wants to accomplish his dream — to win a NASCAR championship.

But in the meantime, he’ll be working alongside more than 50,000 others worldwide, meeting the needs of American military personnel serving overseas. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Erik Bartkowiak’s baseball training facility in Port St. Lucie already was struggling when the economy started to fail.. Bartkowiak quickly found himself swinging at hardballs with a Wiffle ball bat.

In September, parents started coming to the Sandlot Baseball and Softball Academy saying they no longer could afford the $100-a-month membership for instructions and access to the facility’s equipment.

“One or two would say they just got laid off and ask for a break on membership,” Bartkowiak said. “In October, it was four or five a day. By January, I was down to about 20 members. It doesn’t work — $2,000 a month when I needed $20,000 to operate.”

With other training programs to offer and alternative business financing, he got out with his wallet mostly intact. But not everyone has been so lucky. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — Whether it’s for a local New York Mets game or the Super Bowl in Tampa, Indian River State College and the federal government are training security agents from across the country in national defense.

The college joined with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Energy this week for a 3 1/2-day course at the college’s new Vernon Smith Public Safety Education Building at the Treasure Coast Public Safety Training Complex on Kirby Loop Road.

Thirty students in law enforcement, emergency management, public safety, and medical and fire rescue from the state and across the country searched for radioactive materials throughout the 50-acre complex on Thursday in what college officials hope to be the first of many national defense seminars.

They are being taught by 25 federal instructors, learning to prevent a catastrophic radiological or nuclear attack. Officials from small agencies, as well as those going to work the presidential inauguration next week and the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 are part of the group. No one from the Treasure Coast in the group are attending those events.

By Laurie K. Blandford, TCPalm.com