Sky Metalawala: Police Expand Search for Washington Boy

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(BELLEVUE, Wash.) -- Authorities and volunteers are expanding their search efforts Sunday for a 2-year-old boy from Washington who has been missing for a week.

Police said they are doubling back on their earlier work and retracing their steps to find Sky Metalwala.

Without any significant leads, police are growing doubtful that they'll find the boy alive.

"Every hour that passes, this case becomes more and more disappointing for us that we haven't found something to lead to his discovery yet," Bellevue police Maj. Mike Johnson said.

K-9 units have covered the ground, hoping to pick up the scent of the missing toddler as dive teams combed the waters, looking for any clues.

On Saturday, police scoured a park near the apartment complex where Sky lived with his mother, Julia Biryukova.

Biryukova told police earlier that she left Sky alone in her car after she ran out of gas and walked off for help. When she returned to her silver Acura SUV, the child was gone, she told police.

According to police, Biryukova did walk to the Northtowne Chevron Service, but she never bought gas there, police said.

Instead, she spent time walking around a wealthy neighborhood where she reportedly didn't ask anyone for help, officials said.

When detectives checked to see how much gas was left in her car, they found enough for her to have continued driving.

Investigators took her car for a test drive, to see if it had any mechanical problems that would have forced her to leave it on the side of the road.

Police said they are now convinced it didn't have engine trouble and there was plenty of gas in the tank.

"I'll let the evidence speak to itself, which is there was gas in the car and was able to drive and operate. That's not what Julia told us," Bellevue police Maj. Mike Johnson said.

Police said that after Biryukova visited the gas station she called a friend who picked her up and took her back to her two-door silver Acura, where they allegedly discovered the boy was missing.

Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, said Wednesday that he thinks Biryukova is connected with his son's disappearance.

Metalwala has agreed to take two polygraph tests, but Biryukova has refused to be tested, telling investigators that she has been too disturbed to participate.

Police have made a public appeal for Biryukova's cooperation, and have also asked the public to help.

Biryukova's attorney declined requests for comment to ABC News.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Occupy Portland Protesters Stay Past Deadline, Cops in Riot Gear

Natalie Behring/Getty Images(PORTLAND, Ore.) -- Occupy Portland protestors stayed past the 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline and continued to demonstrate early Sunday morning as police in riot gear maintained the crowd of an estimated 3,000 protestors and supporters.

At least one arrest has been made after a protestor threw what appeared to be a lit firecracker at an officer, injuring him, according to Portland Police.

Police monitored the situation but did not make any attempt to move in, despite that the crowd refused to dissipate.

In other Occupy movements across the country, 18 people were arrested in Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Park on Saturday night. In Denver, 17 people were arrested Saturday night in the city’s Civic Center Park. In San Francisco, two police officers were attacked with sharp objects thrown at them by protesters on Saturday.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began Sept. 17 in New York City, and continues to gain momentum.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Woman Raped at Occupy Philadelphia

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(PHILADELPHIA) -- A woman protester at the Occupy Philadelphia encampment at City Hall was raped in a tent, allegedly by a man who had traveled from out of state to join the protest, police said.

The suspect was arrested almost immediately after the alleged attack, and the woman is with the police Special Victims Unit.

The alleged rapist is reported to have been arrested multiple times in connection with a string of armed robberies in Kalamazoo, Mich., officials said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Penn State Scandal Probe Continues as Team Plays Without Paterno

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images(STATE COLLEGE, Pa.) -- As the investigation continues into the sex abuse scandal that rocked Penn State last week, the school's football team played its first game without legendary coach, Joe Paterno this weekend.

For the nearly 100,000 people who packed Beaver Stadium Saturday, it was the first football game in nearly half a century without Paterno.

It was about much more than football.

It was about healing after the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges, then the firing of Penn State President Graham Spanier and Paterno—the winningest major college football coach in history.

After an emotional pre-game prayer involving all the players and coaches from both Penn State and visiting Big Ten rival Nebraska, the Nittany Lions fell behind 17-0 in the third quarter, and their comeback fell short, losing 17-14.

The moment of silence was held for the victims of alleged child sexual abuse.

At a news conference after the game, newly appointed Penn State President Rodney Erickson, who replaced Spanier, said he believed it was right to play and bring national attention to issue of sexual abuse.

He said the pre-game moment of silence "one of the most moving and genuine" shows of support he's seen.

Despite the turmoil in the football program, Erickson said that if Penn State—which was ranked No. 12 coming into the game—receives a bowl bid, the school would not turn it down.

"If our student athletes have earned the right to compete" in a bowl, "I see no reason not to do so," he said. Sandusky has been charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period. Two other university officials are facing perjury charges related to the case.

The mother of the first child to contact police alleges that her son was about 11, and enrolled in programs sponsored by Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation, when the molestation began.

Her son spent time alone with Sandusky, she said, and slept overnight in his basement.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said he believes there will be an investigation on the Sandusky charity, the Second Mile and what exactly officials there knew.

Sandusky also faces possible charge in San Antonio, Texas, where he allegedly threatened to ship another of his alleged Pennsylvania victims back home after the boy rejected Sandusky's advances during 1999 Alamo Bowl.

While Paterno was not present at the game, his son Jay remained at his post as the quarterbacks coach.

"Once we got here and the juices started flowing I was focused and that is the way we have been trained," he said.

He delivered a letter with this message to before the game: "Dad, I wish you were here. We love you."

While riotous student protesters, angered by what they view as the scapegoating of Paterno, overturned one TV crew's vehicle this week and gathered in front of Paterno's home while other students have placed their focus elsewhere.

"The important thing is what happened to these kids... Some people are forgetting what this is really about," said Megan Lister, another student at Penn State, which attracted thousands to Friday night's candlelight vigil for the alleged victims. It replaced a planned pep rally.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Guns Drawn, Calif. City Workers Parody Police Profiling on YouTube

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WEST COVINA, Calif.) -- A YouTube spoof on the folly of stereotype-driven police profiling has sparked a City of West Covina, Calif., investigation of how the municipal employees in the roughly two-minute video gained use of actual police uniforms and police cars, and whether they were shooting real bullets from inside the vehicles, ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles reports.

"We're wasting our time dealing with these goofs that wasted our resources and our equipment doing this," said West Covina Mayor Pro Tem Michael Touhey, adding that he will demand full repayment of the investigation's cost from the filmmaker.

With almost 1 million views, the parody damages the image of West Covina's police department and its city government, officials said

Police Cpl. Rudy Lopez, a department spokesman, said no sworn officers were among the video's six actors that consisted of a multiracial crew of five cops and a white, Starbucks-drinking, biscotti-dunking motorist. With police guns drawn on him, he exits the vehicle, hands in the air and eyes bugged in feigned fright.

City employees were involved in the taping but, at this point in the investigation, remain on the payroll, according to the police spokesman.

Patrick Scott is shown in the credits as director and Nikos Bellas as producer of the piece by Zoochosis.com, a Venice, Calif. production company.

Dismissing city officials' outrage, the company issued a statement on Friday: "This is America and truth will always prevail, unless, of course, lies make a better sound bite."

"Save Miranda," referring to the list of rights against self-incrimination and to a legal counsel that police are required to alert detainees to before questioning, flashes on-screen during the credits.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Washington National Cathedral Reopens After Earthquake

Photodisc/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Washington National Cathedral reopened Saturday, 10 weeks after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook Virgina and left cracks in the landmark.

The damage mostly occurred in the higher parts of the cathedral, which at 300 feet, is the tallest building in Washington D.C.

“What has happened over the past 10 weeks is workers have been stabilizing the building to reopen,” spokesman Richard Weinberg told ABCNews.com.

Safety measures will still be in place until all repairs are complete, including netting on the ceiling and a safety barrier on the perimeter of the building.

Weinberg said the cathedral still needs to replace the tower’s limestone pinnacles, which weigh a few tons each.

The pinnacles have been secured and have no bearing on the structural integrity of the cathedral, according to the Cathedral’s web site, however they do help to balance the weight of the building and counter the force of wind.

Repairing the cathedral has become a daunting challenge of money, skill and time.

“Just off the top of my head I could envision it taking at least two years to repair the tower and get all this stonework back,” lead mason Joe Alonso told D.C. mayor Vincent Gray, ABC 7 in Washington D.C. reported.

The stone landmark, which was built by hand and completely by donations, took 83 years to complete.

Officials said they hope to raise $25 million to help fund repairs.

More than half a million people visit the cathedral each year.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Occupy Deaths Force Cities to Close Camps

Scott Eells/Bloomberg(OAKLAND, Calif.) -- With an Occupy demonstrator in Salt Lake City dead from what police said was a combination of carbon monoxide poisoning and drug use, a 35-year-old's suicide at Occupy Burlington, Vt., and a shooting death within or near Occupy's Oakland, Calif. site, officials in all three cities are pressing to close those operations.

Eviction notices were handed out Friday night to Occupiers in Oakland, where the Oakland Police Officers Association argues that monitoring Occupy is unfairly cutting into worker hours that should be spent patrolling the rest of the city.

The man, who so far has not been identified, was gunned down Thursday near the Occupy Oakland encampment, and Friday Mayor Jean Quan asked the hundreds of demostrators camped in Frank Ogawa Plaza to leave voluntarily.

"It is an example of why we need to peacefully close the encampment at City Hall," Quan said. "We are asking everyone at the plaza to leave. We're going to give another official notice today."

The Oakland Police Officers' Association (OPOA) said the connection between the Occupy protest and the killing is clear.

"I don't see too many broad daylight murders in Downtown Oakland," Dom Arotzarena with OPOA said. "What's happened in Oakland is that this Occupy Oakland (movement) has created an environment that is conducive to crime."

But protesters told ABC station KGO-TV in San Francisco that there was no link between Occupy Oakland and the murder.

"They were not occupiers," protester Maxwell Pryde said. "It happened in an area where kids come hang out after school anyway."

Clashes between Oakland police and Occupiers have been intermittent, with police on Oct. 25 tear-gassing that encampment and arresting 85 Occupiers. The next day, Occupiers were allowed to return to their makeshift headquarters.

In Salt Lake City -- where, thus far, police said, the 91 arrests of Occupiers more or less equals the total arrests in 2010 for the area around the encampment -- protesters countered officials' complaints.

In Vermont, 35-year-old transient Joshua Pfenning's shooting suicide, using what police said was a stolen gun, Police Chief Mike Schirling to question the prudence of allowing the camp to remain, the Burlington Free Press reported.

Pfenning, police said, aimed the gun one of three other people inside his tent before his self-inflicted shot, about which he had forewarned other protesters.

"We know that at least one weapon has been present in the encampment and we are now clear that there has been extensive consumption of alcohol and some use of drugs by those present in the camp," said Shirling, who, according to the Free Press, had walked through the camp, chatting with protesters and handing out his business card. "The presence of structures and tents creates an enhanced risk by virtue of the activity that can and is occurring inside them."

Protester Jaime Jackson, 20, a University of Vermont student in environmental studies, told the Free Press that the encampment, established on Oct. 28, was a necessary action.

"This movement is still young," she said, "and we're not going away."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Sky Metalwala: Father Pleads for Help in Search of Missing Son

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(REDMOND, Wash.) -- The father of missing 2-year-old boy, Sky Metalwala, said he plans to work with volunteers today to pass out flyers with his son's picture on them.

Overnight, Solomon Metalwala met with reporters to plead for help in finding his son, who has now been missing for nearly a week.

"My hope is that he's coming back and that's where I find my strength that he's going to come back," he said.

Sky's mother, Julia Biryukova, claims she left Sky alone in her car after she ran out of gas and walked off for help.

Solomon Metalwala said Wednesday that he thinks Biryukova is connected with his son's disappearance.

"I do believe that Julia has a, she's responsible …," Solomon Metalwala said speaking of Biryukova. "It's sad. Because if she can just cooperate, we can find where, where is our son."

He also talked about a strange dream his wife had and which she related to him.

"In this dream she, she was strangling Sky," he said. "And it was very alarming."

Biryukova told detectives in Bellevue, Wash., that she was driving her two children to Overlake Hospital Medical Center Sunday morning because her youngest child, Sky, wasn't feeling well.

She said she ran out of gas on 112th Avenue, so she left Sky in the car while she and her 4-year-old daughter walked about a mile away to a gas station.

When she returned to her silver Acura SUV, the child was gone, she told police.

Investigators have serious questions about Biryukova's story.

They say her account doesn't add up, and also say it's remarkably similar to an episode of the TV series "Law and Order." The episode, which police say is "strikingly similar in nature" to Biryukova's story, centered on a mother who tries to cover up the death of her child by saying he was taken from her car.

That detail also alarms Solomon Metalwala.

According to police, Biryukova did walk to the Northtowne Chevron Service on Sunday, but she never bought gas there, police said.

Instead, she spent time walking around a wealthy neighborhood where she reportedly didn't ask anyone for help, officials said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Penn State Scandal: Nittany Lions Take the Field Without Joe Paterno

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images(UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn.) -- Penn State University's Nittany Lions Saturday will be playing their first football game in 46 years without legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, 84, who was fired amid a sexual abuse scandal by a former assistant coach.

"We lost our coach so I guess we are playing for a little bit more now. We're playing for Penn State and trying to make Penn State's name back to where it was," linebacker Nate Stupar told "Good Morning America."

Former assistant football coach Gerard "Jerry" Sandusky has been charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period.

The mother of the first child to contact police alleges that her son was about 11, and enrolled in programs sponsored by Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation, when the molestation began.

"My son started acting out," she said during an exclusive "Good Morning America" interview.

Her child once said he wanted to conduct an Internet search of "sex weirdos," said the woman, whose identify Good Morning America did not reveal. "He said he wanted to see if Jerry was on there."

She sought intervention from her son's guidance counselors, who confirmed her suspicions that he had been molested by Sandusky who, she said, also was regularly taking the boy away from school grounds during the schoolday, without her knowledge or consent. Her son spent time alone with Sandusky, she said, and slept overnight in his basement.

"I was horrified," the mother said, of what she learned from school counselors.

Nevertheless, Penn State, a longtime sports powerhouse, has much more on the line than football.

While riotous student protesters, angered by what they view as the scapegoating of Paterno, overturned one TV crew's vehicle this week and gathered en masse in front of Paterno's home, other students have placed their focus elsewhere.

"The important thing is what happened to these kids... Some people are forgetting what this is really about," said Megan Lister, another student at Penn State, which attracted thousands to Friday night's candlelight vigil for the alleged victims. It replaced a planned pep rally.

Increased security will be in place for today's game and "inspections will be more deliberate and thorough, and the University's regulation on bags will be strictly enforced," university officials said.

Many of the 100,000 fans projected to pack the stadiium for Saturday's game are will be clad in blue -- the designated color representing the sexual abuse of children -- instead of the white; their customary attire for home games.

Another major change in plans is the removal of assistant coach Mike McQueary from the coaching line-up for Saturday's game against Nebraska.

Now on administrative leave, McQueary was a 28-year-old graduate assistant in the football department when he allegedly saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy, roughly 10 years old, in the locker room showers.

McQueary left the building and reported the incident to Paterno the next day.

Authorities said McQueary did what was required of him and he was not a target of the investigation.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Fugitive Surrendered After 42 Years Because It Was 'Right Thing to Do'

Comstock/Thinkstock(REDWOOD CITY, Calif.) -- Cole Lee Jordan seemed to have the classic middle class American success story, having worked his way up from being a janitor at Washtenaw Community College to earning a master's degree and becoming a guidance counselor at the school.

But Jordan was really Ronald Bridgeforth, a man who engaged police in a shootout at a San Francisco discount store on Nov. 5, 1968, after he was confronted for allegedly using a stolen credit card to buy $29 worth of clothes and toys.

Four decades later, despite living a comfortable life under his alias, Bridgeforth, 67, decided to come forward.

On Thursday, after calling ahead, Bridgeforth arrived at the Hall of Justice in Redwood City, Calif., and surrendered to police.

"He said it was the right thing to do and it's all about family," Bridgeforth's attorney Paul Harris told ABCNews.com. " He wanted his sons to grow up to be the man he was today, not the young man he was on Nov. 5, 1968."

After being confronted on that day in 1968, Bridgeforth allegedly pulled a gun on the officers and fired two bullets into a police car. Police fired back, shooting him in the foot. No officers were injured in the scuffle and Bridgeforth was taken into custody.

He pleaded no contest to the shooting, but jumped bail in 1969 and went to Africa for a year, where he knew no one.

"He was 23 and scared," Harris said. "His lawyer said he'd serve life in prison because California had indeterminate sentencing at that time, meaning he could be sentenced to something such as five years to life."

After a year, Bridgeforth came back to the United States and assumed a new identity as Cole Lee Jordan. He settled in to life in Ann Arbor, Mich., with his wife, Diane, who was the only person to share his secret. Bridgeforth's two grown sons only recently learned of their father's past.

He even severed ties with his mother to keep his identity secure.

Bridgeforth got a job working as a janitor at Washtenaw Community College in 1978, according to Janet Hawkins, spokeswoman for the school.

"Throughout his work here, he went to school and took on various jobs," Hawkins said.

She told ABCNews.com Bridgeforth earned a bachelors degree in general studies from Wayne State University in 1986 and a masters degree in counseling from Eastern Michigan in 1993.

He was licensed by the state of Michigan as a professional counselor in 1994 and became a faculty member at Washtenaw Community College in 1998, where he had worked as a student adviser ever since.

Despite exposing his past, it seems Bridgeforth is still well-loved, according to Harris. He said he expects to make Bridgeforth's $25,000 bail today, thanks to the level of support that he said has been pouring in "from all over."

Bridgeforth knew in coming forward that he also faced charges related to the 1971 fatal shooting of an officer. He was alleged to be the getaway driver, but he denied any involvement. Harris said his client wasn't even in the state at the time of the incident.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio