Weekend wrap-up: Here are the biggest Arizona stories from Nov. 21-25
Nov 25, 2018, 5:13 PM
(Phoenix Zoo Photo)
(Phoenix Zoo Photo)
Holiday festivities, tension at the border and South Mountain rescues.
Here are some stories that headlined the news cycle, both locally and nationally, over the long weekend.
The Valley celebrates Thanksgiving and kicks off holiday festivities
Thanksgiving dinner was served early to some adorable monkeys at the Phoenix Zoo.
Some people chose to stay home from shopping on Thanksgiving and volunteer their time at an animal shelter.
Other watched movies, deep cleaned their appliances and fired up their space heaters for the season.
Over the weekend, Arizona cities and organizations kicked off holiday events.
The Phoenix Zoo opened its ZooLights event, which will run daily through January. Online voting for the name of the zoo’s baby reindeer closes Monday night.
Downtown Mesa began its Merry Main Street festival, while Glendale kicked off Glendale Glitters.
Tempe held its Fantasy of Lights Opening Night Parade on Black Friday and Phoenix opened its CitySkate outdoor ice skating rink.
Tensions increase at the U.S.-Mexico border
Central American migrants traveling to the U.S. in a caravan to reached the border Sunday.
Around 5,000 migrants have been camped in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks.
Many hope to apply for asylum in the U.S., but agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day.
Many migrants participated in a peaceful demonstration calling for the U.S. to speed up the processing of asylum claims early Sunday.
When some migrants attempted to cross the border fence following the demonstration, border patrol agents responded by firing tear gas.
On Friday, the Tijuana mayor declared the 5,000 migrants in the city to be a humanitarian crisis and asked the United Nations for aid.
Phoenix Fire rescues hiker, mountain biker on South Mountain
A man taking a Thanksgiving Day hike on South Mountain fell and was lodged between two boulders on South Mountain.
Phoenix Fire crews were able to free him without injury, and he was able to walk down the mountain on his own.
On Sunday morning, Phoenix Fire crews rescued a mountain biker who crashed on a South Mountain trail and possibly broke his collarbone.
The biker was airlifted to a nearby hospital and was reportedly in stable condition.
Man freed from prison accused of killing woman in Tucson on same day
A man is accused of killing a woman on the same day he was released from an Arizona prison, authorities said Saturday.
David James Bohart was arrested at a hotel Friday on suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of Marika L. Jones, 49.
Tucson police said they found her body with stab wounds at a house two days earlier as well as a file of prison records on Bohart.
He was released Monday from the Tucson state prison complex, where he served a three-year sentence for possession or use of dangerous drugs, the Arizona Department of Corrections website said.
A warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to check in to a court-ordered treatment facility, police said.
Video shows customer’s racist remarks at Phoenix restaurant
A video of a white customer making racist remarks to another patron at a Phoenix restaurant is grabbing attention on social media.
Lennys Bermudez stopped at Wildflower Bread Company on Tuesday and says she was shocked by a woman’s rant after she sat down.
That’s when Bermudez took out her cellphone to record their interaction.
In the video, the unidentified woman says she would “prefer the whole freaking nation be white.”
