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NEW YORK (AP) – Prosecutors say a Queens teenager shot and killed his cousin while showing off a gun.

Felix Cruz was awaiting arraignment Thursday on charges including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Prosecutors did not know whether he had a lawyer, and a message left at an apparent telephone number for his Far Rockaway home wasn’t immediately returned.

The Queens district attorney’s office says the 18-year-old knew the gun was loaded when he playfully pointed it at cousin Veronica Cruz Wednesday evening. Prosecutors say he pulled the trigger once, then again after the gun didn’t fire. The second time, the cousin was shot in the face.

The cousin was visiting for the summer from Clinton, Mass., about 45 miles from Boston. She also was 18.

Alligator found in N.Y. suburb pond

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) – The great alligator hunt in Westchester County is over.

County wildlife control agents fished the 3-foot alligator from a pond in the Pine Cliff Sanctuary in Chappaqua (chap-pah-KWAH’) on Wednesday.

A walker had spotted the gator and called New Castle police on Tuesday. When police called animal control, a field manager says they thought “it was a joke at first.”

Trappers put chicken out to lure the alligator on Tuesday night. But a raccoon ate the bait. The next day, they returned with a deep-sea fishing pole. One attempt failed when the alligator ate the bait and swam off. On the second try, the gator became tangled in the fishing line.

Animal control officers say the alligator may have been a pet. They’re trying to find it a new home in a sanctuary.



Information from: The Journal News, http://www.thejournalnews.com

AP-ES-08-14-08 1909EDT

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