WCBI NEWS AT 6 - 11/6/20

WCBI NEWS AT 6 - 11/6/20

A suspect is behind bars today after a police chase ended in a 6-hour armed standoff in a lake in sturgis last night.

Wcbi reporter stephen pimpo has been following this story since it broke last night and has more on this scary situation that could've ended even worse.

"quiet, sweet little place like this that nothing like that could ever happen.

But that's wrong, it sure can."

Barbara james says she and her husband were just sitting down to dinner when their small sturgis home became the scene of an armed standoff.

The oktibbeha county sheriff's office say they the oktibbeha county sheriff's office say they and 10 other agencies were on the scene some time around 6 thursday night when their pursuit of 39-year-old suspect gary boyles of greenville ended with a crash after officers deployed spike strips in the path of the truck boyles was driving.

Su: the sheriffs department says the suspect was speeding down highway 12 when he turned off into this sturgis home's yard and crashed right into that pond.

While she did not want her face shown on camera, barbara was still willing to sit down with me and describe the harrowing scene she witnessed in her own backyard.

"we start hearing the sirens, lots her own backyard.

"we start hearing the sirens, lots and lots of them...i looked out and it was just oodles, tones of cop cars."

Barbara says officers had lights trained on boyles as he tried to stay afloat in the wreckage.

"i think he might have been standing on the back of that trailer and it started sinking and the water got up to his waste."

Then barbara says she saw boyles brandishing a gun.

"the more they tried to talk to him and lure him out, he would put the gun up under his chin and at one point, i could've swore he put it in his mouth but it looked like he put it in his mouth."

Eventually, she says she had to turn away.

"we were afraid.

I stopped looking, i was afraid, he was going to shoot his head off and that would be see ya."

Some time around midnight, crisis negotiators from the fbi and both starkville and tupelo pd convinced boyles to surrender.

"he was really groaning like he was hurting bad.

I don't know if he was hurt or standing in that water too long."

Boyles was taken to och regional medical center with non-life threatening injuries.

In sturgis, stephen pimpo, wcbi.

Boyles is currently in custody at the oktibbeha county jail awaiting arraignment.

The sheriff's office has not released any information on the charges boyles is facing at this time.

West point police need your helping finding a man missing for three days.

Investigators say a neighbor last saw 68-year-old james kelly unger the third tuesday.

The neighbor tells police it is unusual for unger to be away for so long and not answer his phone.

Unger is 5 feet 9 and weighs 185 pounds.

He has blue eyes and gray hair.

He drives a white 2012 ford escape with tag number: cyb6331 if you have seen unger or any information, call west point police.

The mississippi first look stinger first look summary: unseasonably warm air will continue through the weekend and into next week.

There are a few chances for rain over the next 7 days but they remain slim overall.

Friday night: mostly clear to partly cloudy.

Lows in the 50s.

Weather for high school football looks great with evening temperatures in the low 60s and 50s.

Saturday: partly to mostly cloudy.

An isolated shower or few sprinkles can't be ruled out.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Winds e 5-10 mph.

Intro ballot numbers keep rolling in for georgia and pennsylvania.

However, processing every ballot can be bit time consuming in order to report those accurate numbers.

Wcbi's stephanie poole speaks with local election commissioners about what goes in to review.

Since election day, election workers have worked around the clock to get ballot numbers in.

For clay county, hubert caston says the board received 2,146 absentee ballots and 179 affidavits this year.

" to some areas, that's not a-lot but it's a-lot to us."

Caston says after 3 days, they were still counting.

"we had to scan them all that night.

We were here till about 3oclock in the morning getting those scanned because we don't have enough equipment to handle this many ballots normally."

On a national scale for states like georgia, pennsylvania and arizona, numbers for absentee and mail-in ballots are nearing the hundred- thousands...turnin g the wait for election results into a longer stretch.

Election commissioner linda ivy says it's a 3- step process.

"it's a long process, because we want them to check in three times with the application in the ballot with he names and everything.

Then it goes to the next process opening the envelope, then the next process is stacking by district.

" keeping up with the work load has been difficult during a pandemic.

"covid-19 really put a-lot of extra work on us because we wanted to keep all our voters safe and we wanted to keep all our workers safe."

That's why caston and ivy are asking those in larger states getting the job done.

"it's tough.

I feel for them, some of them have been working around the clock trying to get it done."

Butt sots "every vote counts and we want to make sure people are accounted for."

Reporting in clay county, stephanie poole, wcbi news.

Clay county election commission says the board will not finish counting absentee ballots until november 10th.

A lot has been said about the stress and anxiety adults are feeling becuase of the elections.

But what about our kids?

Meredith wood shares some tips from a child therapist on how to talk with your kids through this time in today's health minute.

It's been an intense election season... and kids are watching too.

Sheryl gonzalez ziegler , child therapist: one of the first things that can be helpful is to ask them questions.

Ask them what they know, what they're curious about, and what they've heard child therapist sheryl ziegler says kids as young as pre-school can understand concepts of people having different opinions.

Sheryl gonzalez ziegler , child therapist: and you can let them know that's what we're doing in a election.

It comes down to about two people and somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose to help kids process the election you can encourage your kids to participate by voting on something, themselves sheryl gonzalez ziegler , child therapist: you can be fun with it at home like , vanilla chocolate strawberry, pick from one of the three and give them those kinds of choices and to deal with outcomes, ziegler says you should reinforce to children that in the end they will be o.k.

Sheryl gonzalez ziegler , child therapist: i think that's the bottom line, kids need to hear that we're going to be ok and that you depersonalize it a little bit by just saying everybody has their own sets of values and things that are important to them.

Here's what ours are as a family, which is a great time to talk about it, and then compare contrast that to the candidates.

The number of new covid-19 cases in the state remains high.

The state department of health is reporting 967 new cases today and 14 deaths.

One of those deaths is in lee county.

In our area, lee county continues to have the most new cases.

Today it's reporting 71 cases.

Pontotoc county is reporting 28 new cases.

Fewer people are hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of covid-19.

That number is at 640.

154 patients are in icu.

73 are on a ventilator.

Top 4 county electric power association members will enjoy a reduction in rates, beginning in november and lasting for a twelve month cycle.

Residential members should see about a two dollar and seventeen cent decrease per month.

Commercial accounts will also see a decrease.

Local power companies like 4 count recently received a cumulative two hundred million dollar credit with the tennessee valley authority.

Tva officials say the credit is intended to help communities and businesses recover more quickly from the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

Top a busy columbus road will soon be closed for construction.

Public information officer joe dillon says the roundabout at the intersection of military road and highway 82 will be closed sunday at noon until further notice.

He says closing this area is the best way to ensure safety to workers.

Over the next few weeks mdot will work to pave and mill the road.

Dillon says drivers should plan for an alternate route as they will only be allowed to make right turns near the bypass.

"if you're coming down the bypass, you can take a right turn in either direction when you get off the bypass, you just can't turn left and go back up under the bridge."

"we just ask people to be patient.

It's going to be a beautiful project when it's done.

It'll be newly paved, new lights, new curbs.

That road has been bumpy for a while, so it's going to be milled down the the foundation and then redone, so it'll be worth the wait."

Dillon says the project is weather dependant, but it will most likely wrap up close to the beginning of december.

The only winery in lowndes county is now open for business.

"marcella's winery" is a family-owned business in new hope.

It opened to the public in september, offering customers a variety of muscadine wines as well a sweet blueberry wine.

The owners say also host very personal experiences for their customers.

We do like individual tastings like if a couple comes, we can do those out in the winery which is on the other side of the house.

But if we have a group, we would do it on the porch so we will have more space so people can get farther apart.

The owners pick the muscadines from the vineyard located on their property.

Stinger each student, teacher and staff member in the tupelo public school district will get their personal water bottle, thanks to a covid 19 related grant from toyota.

Wcbi's allie martin has more.

Take nats full glitter poppers it was a celebration at joyner elementary, as the school received 450 reusable water bottles from toyota motor manufacturing mississippi.

The automaker awarded 20 thousand dollars to tpsd.

The money will be used to purchase 83 hundred reusable water bottles for the district.

The bottles help students have a safe way to get drinking water, and they cut down on waste.

Joyner principal kim foster requested the grant .

"covid has brought a lot of things that have hindered us but partnerships that have happened through this experience have continued to grow, and they are nourishing our schools and helping us to be able to serve our students, a water bottle?

A water bottle has made a difference."

Toyota has focused its grant funding this year on covid 19 related response and relief for school districts and nonprofits.

"in all the communities we operate, we have a grant program that sponsors grants for education, healthcare and food needs in local communities."

Standup bridge partnerships like the one with toyota are vital for tupelo schools as teachers, staff and administrators look to provide safe, in person classes for students.

"we're having school, our goal is to have school five days a week all year long."

Students had a special message for toyota.

"thank you" in tupelo, allie martin, wcbi news to review grant guidelines and submit an application, go to toyota grants dot com slash t m m m s.

Stinger weather open summary: unseasonably warm air will continue through the weekend and into next week.

There are a few chances for rain over the next 7 days but they remain slim overall.

Tropics: the remnants of hurricane eta are expected to push into florida or the eastern gulf of mexico this weekend and early next week.

The latest data suggest it will not be a factor for our immediate area but we'll keep watching.

Friday night: mostly clear to partly cloudy.

Lows in the 50s.

Weather for high school football looks great with evening temperatures in the low 60s and 50s.

Saturday: partly to mostly cloudy.

An isolated shower or few sprinkles can't be ruled out.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Winds e 5-10 mph.

Saturday night: variably cloudy.

Lows in the upper 50s to around 60.

Sunday: partly cloudy and warm.

Highs in the upper 70s.

Next week: a mix of sun and clouds with highs in the mid to upper 70s.

Lows in the 50s and low 60s.

Some rain is possible during the middle and end of the week but we're keeping odds at just 20% for now.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and the wcbi news app stinger summary: unseasonably warm air will continue through the weekend and into next week.

There are a few chances for rain over the next 7 days but they remain slim overall.

Tropics: the stinger for the next couple of nights into the week in italy next week so that fall feel like they probably want to get more of that as we are now into november is willing to feel more like really fall or early spring necessarily fall in november spx open grandpas children and babies to wcb chris bolton and i'm here in louisville part came the week great time matchup playoff starting classes two- way three and 48 game on here for it is the wildcats get me started for afirst round somebody's teams start to get everything going caledonian make them big time for his program as he looks make next week upset victory tonight against louisville and has some really close match of the season and is buried in the know) a mix against amery heritage academy shannon albright seems qualified for playoffs to see the look in the pull together and get bells to become tonight and it was the number one team in class for a top team in the state baby ball and rolling all season long and lost to starkville earlier this season ever since dale lost seven straight victories 81 seasonb and the bishop play is already here they were undefeated day when the division it is always hard to be here is the stadium so we're excited about not just 30 yards offense with lots of things we can portland do with the show a little bit more aggressiveness our work so that we can be this team is to come away with when it will become a group representing the whole team played this season to take down upon like this and only areas aaa has a time night this team will be in the mix to get the win i find this game around like on wcb i in zone x and will recap this matchup at 11 dunamis time between time resources how to roll so i have to give michael about real quick to be alone i should it's beginning to look at lot like christmas in columbus.

The annual downtown christmas open house kicks off tonight and runs all weekend.

Downtown businesses are decking the halls with specials, prizes and promotions to kick off the holiday shopping season.

Select stores will have special hours sunday from 1 to 5pm.

Last look stinger