Pair of cows wander onto Ohio interstate, semi hits, kills 1

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) — Police say a tractor-trailer struck and killed one of two runaway cows that had wandered onto Interstate 70 near Dayton.

Officers were able to capture the other cow after the accident Friday morning.

Police in the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights say they’re not sure how the cows got onto the highway.

The accident closed one westbound lane of the roadway for about an hour.

Ohio officer shot during standoff, expected to be OK

SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio (AP) — A police chief near Cleveland says a SWAT officer shot during a standoff was hit several times but is expected to be OK.

Sheffield Lake police say the officer was shot Thursday night when a SWAT team tried to enter the man’s house after he refused to come out for several hours or talk with negotiators.

Authorities say the officer was flown to a Cleveland hospital where he underwent surgery.

The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria reports police say the suspect also was shot and eventually surrendered. He was treated at a hospital but his condition wasn’t available.

Sheffield Lake police Chief Tony Campo says U.S. Marshals and the Lorain County SWAT went to the house Thursday afternoon to serve a felony arrest warrant.

Fire official says Ohio man killed, 2 children injured

CINCINNATI (AP) — Firefighters say a man has been killed and two children critically injured by an early morning fire in a Cincinnati apartment building.

District Chief Rob McWilliams says the fire broke out at around 12:50 a.m. Friday at Winton Woods Apartments.

McWilliams says firefighters searching the building found the man and two children on the third floor. Another adult in the room made it out safely, but fire officials say the man died at the scene.

The children were in critical condition at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

They say a woman from another unit has been taken to a hospital for burn treatment.

McWilliams says the fire started in a second-floor apartment and damaged three other units. The cause is under investigation.

The American Red Cross is assisting displaced residents.

Jury recommends death penalty for man who killed Ohio woman

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A judge in Youngstown will decide next week whether to accept a jury’s recommendation of the death penalty for a man convicted of killing a woman and attacking her mother.

The jury recommended the sentence for 48-year-old Lance Hundley, of Warren, on Wednesday.

His defense attorneys declined to comment after the jury’s decision.

Hundley was convicted last week of aggravated murder in the beating and strangling death of 41-year-old Erika Huff in 2015.

Investigators say she was letting Hundley stay at her house because he needed somewhere to live.

The Vindicator in Youngstown reports Hundley also was convicted of attempted murder in the beating Huff’s mother, Denise Johnson.

Hundley had told jurors that someone else was in the house when Huff was killed, but he said he can’t prove it.

Charges dropped against black Ohio driver stopped by patrol

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed charges against a black driver stopped by the Ohio State Highway Patrol following questions about the role race played in the arrest.

Tyrone Warfield of Chicago was pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike in 2014 and convicted of a counterfeit charge based on debit and credit cards found in his car.

A trooper brought a drug-sniffing dog to the scene although no drugs were detected.

A Cincinnati appeals court raised concerns after a trooper testified he took drug-sniffing dogs more often to stops with minorities.

The patrol later confirmed it uses drug-sniffing dogs on stops involving black drivers at a higher rate than stops involving whites. It says race doesn’t play a role.

The judge dismissed the charges against Warfield Thursday at the government’s request.