Big Country Beat: Abilene crimes, power outages & nearby serious crashes dominate headlines
ABILENE, Texas (BigCountryHomepage.com) – As the week comes to a close, we like to take a look back on how our news coverage garnered significant attention. From the looks of it, our audience was most interested in a mix of hard news. Between a widespread power outage and serious car wrecks, a fun human interest piece sprinkled its way on into our Big Country Beat. Have a look.
LAST WEEK → Big Country Beat: Abilene crimes, Weather closures & delays
This week’s top 5 in BCH’s Big Country Beat
5. Thousands without power in Abilene, Taylor County
We begin at the fifth spot, which was a power outage that left thousands of AEP customers without electricity early in the week in South Abilene. An official later told us it was a high voltage transmission line break that caused the outage.
The arrest of Joe Fernandez grabbed a lot of attention likely because of that hooking headline: “Occupant used to ‘sleep with wife.'”
Fernandez is accused of shooting at an Abilene home in 2021, where children live. Court documents say the motive behind the shooting was a past romantic involvement between an occupant and the suspect’s wife.
However, Fernandez told BigCountryHomepage.com he maintains his innocence.
3. Abilene police investigate death in Sayles neighborhood
Last Friday, we broke the news about the Abilene Police Department initiating a death investigation after finding an unresponsive woman outside in the Sayles area of town.
2. Aspiring Abilene nature photographer snaps incredible eagle picture
Didn’t I promise you some good news?
Reporter Noah McKinney spoke with Abilene amateur nature photographer Elizabeth Brooks, who gained a lot of attention on her own after snapping some incredible photos of a bald eagle spotted at Lake Fort Phantom Hill. She described developing a deep connection with the bird:
“It wants you to capture its essence out in the wild… I feel like I wore him out and he was just sick of seeing me,” Brooks told BigCountryHomepage.com.
1. 3 Big Country crashes take 2 lives, injures 2 others
Here’s the deal. This week’s true top five were just a little too grim for my liking. So, I rolled the top three together as number one because they’re the same category. Be that as it may, we did lose two lives in these awful wrecks, and they deserve recognition.
Our true number three slot went to: UPDATE: Truck driver killed on I-20 in Taylor County identified
27-year-old Truck driver Balra Singh from California was killed on I-20 near Trent this Sunday, January 21. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the roads were wet and Singh had a difficult time staying in one lane.
For our actual number two slot, that one goes to: 2 injured in crash on I-20 east of Baird, traveling at a ‘high rate of speed’
Last Friday, a helicopter was used to take car crash victim to medical care after a driver hit a guardrail while speeding, as according to officials BigCountryHomepage.com spoke with at the scene. The other injured person was taken to a nearby hospital via an ambulance.
Here we have our true number one story on web this week: Fatal rollover crash in Tye Sunday afternoon
Emergency personnel from Tye and Abilene arrived to a rollover wreck in Tye this Sunday, to find a driver trapped in his pickup truck. The firefighters were able to free the man from his vehicle, but he passed away shortly after due to his injuries.
Good weather or bad, be sure you’re driving with caution. As they say, “slow and steady wins the race.”
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