Morning News Briefing
Written by Dan Fischer on May 29, 2020
Joshua Blessed
We now know more about the driver of a tractor trailer rig that led police on a two county chase before he was killed in hail of police bullets.
The driver has been identified as 58 year old Joshua Blessed of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Police say he was heading to Batavia Wednesday to pick-up dairy products when he was stopped for speeding in LeRoy.
Social Media posts under Blessed’s name show that he claimed to speak directly to God and received visions from Satan.
Livingston County Sheriff Tom Dougherty said he’d never seen anything like it
Blessed fired several shots at lawmen and rammed police cars during the 90-minute chase.
Dougherty described one harrowing moment for a Genesee County deputy
Social Media accounts traced to Blessed revealed a series of troubling posts including a hatred of law enforcement and conflicts of his personal beliefs.
He was reportedly banned from Facebook twice.
Investigators are continuing to look into social media posts that might help to explain his actions.
Blessed was shot while in the cab of his truck and was dead at the scene.
The Batavia teachers union rejects a proposed change in the daily schedule for city schools.
The Batavia Teachers Association voted against an administration plan that would have altered the start and ends times of classes to save about 200-thousand dollars in transportation costs.
The proposal would have started classes at the high school and middle school a half hour earlier.
The teacher’s union president said research shows teenagers need more sleep.
Another resident of an Orleans County nursing home has died from COVID-19 related illness.
The death was reported at the Orchard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Media.
In the daily update, officials disclosed two new COVID-19 infections in Genesee County and two in Orleans County.
A Batavia woman arrested on welfare fraud charges.
44 year old Heidi Connolly of Hutchins is facing felony charges of grand larceny for allegedly bilking the welfare system out of 36-hundred dollars she was not entitled to.
A new executive order from Governor Cuomo will allow businesses to deny entry to customers who aren’t wearing face masks. In the last few weeks, there have been confrontations between business owners and customers who refuse to wear a mask. The governor says he’s supporting business owners because they have the right to protect themselves and other people in their store.
