WAFC Local News – December 04, 2025, 8:33 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. In the courts, a Clewison man received a five-year prison sentence and five years probation for a shooting on February 24th of 2024 on Kentucky Avenue. LaJuan Johnson shot a man in the upper back at point-blank range outside M&M Food Mart. The shooting was caught on store surveillance video happening in the parking lot. It captured Johnson enter the passenger side of a parked vehicle, pick up an AR-style rifle, and fire. Two shell casings were located in the lot. Johnson was arrested after a traffic stop in Palm Beach County two months later. He was originally charged with attempted murder. He was in jail some 527 days before he decided to plea no contest to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Morehaven City Council approving a water rate hike. It’s the first there in 11 years. The base rate for residences goes up by $9.91 per month or $118 per year. The cost on usage goes from $3.53 per 1,000 gallons to $5.49 per 1,000 gallons. Engineers say the city has been operating at a deficit and need more revenue to make needed repairs at the water plant. Mayor Clay Browning had this position on the water rate hike. We’re going to take some heat on this, but we haven’t had an increase in 11 years. So I mean, it ain’t something we want to do. Consultant Priscilla Seigelnick says the financial position of the water fund has declined. Revenue declining 3% annually, expenses increasing, and then you continue to have those pressures, right? Inflation and salary adjustments, cost of living increases. The South Bay City Commission learned an effort to get a veterans park continues. Alicia Pittman says she was able to secure a $15,000 grant for the park. One location considered will not work, so she’d like to have it between City Hall and the library. So people are able to have lunch out there. We’ll have picnic tables as well as covered benches. Another thing, high visibility for tourists. 27 sees a lot of people. A 19-year-old Fort Denard man is facing charges related to DUI after a one-year-old infant was injured during a traffic crash. The 19-year-old man received minor injury. The Florida Highway Patrol says Wyatt Milks was driving westbound on Loblolly Bay Road east of Fernwood Lane in Mews. The SUV traveled off the road, entered the north grass shoulder and overturned. A female passenger age 17 from LaBelle was seriously injured. The one-year-old infant was seriously injured and troopers say it was not properly restrained in a car safety seat. Charges include DUI with serious bodily injury, DUI with property damage and child neglect. The Light Up LaBelle parade is almost here. It’ll be tomorrow night at 6 p.m. It starts on North Main Street and it’ll go to Barron Park. There’ll be pictures with Santa and a bounce house and pelican snowballs. They’ll also have a live nativity scene and much more. To Light Up LaBelle tomorrow night, it starts again at 6 p.m. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).