Connecticut Woman Pleads for Jail in Sex Case

Sabrina Destiny Melendez
(Stamford, Connecticut)

A homeless Bronx woman taken in last year by residents on the city's East Side is going to jail for having sex with the family's 13-year-old boy.

Earlier this week, Sabrina Destiny Melendez, 21, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault at state Superior Court in Stamford.

As part of her plea agreement worked out by Assistant State's Attorney Michelle Manning, Melendez will go to jail for nine months when she is sentenced on Feb. 20. She will be placed on probation for 10 years and will also be placed on the state's Sex Offender Registry for 10 years.

Formal sentencing is scheduled for February 20, 2015.

Is this the rudest necklace ever? 'phallic' pendants spark fury



Controversial designer Tom Ford has sparked fury by launching a range of penis necklaces - just in time for Christmas.  The phallic pendants - which resemble the shape of a cross - come in gold or silver and are available with small, medium and large charms.

Intended as the perfect holiday gifts for kinky fashionistas, size apparently doesn't matter as they are all priced $790.

But the latest offering from the designer provoked outrage on Twitter from users who said the necklaces were 'unbelievably offensive' to Christians and branded Ford 'sick' for combining a phallic image with a religious symbol.

Kevlyn Hall added: 'How dare you use a phallic symbol in the Christian cross! You insulting piece of trash! HOW DARE YOU!'

One user said on Twitter: 'This is unbelievably offensive to me. Is he insane?'

SOURCE

I have no doubt that these pendants were meant to offend and were probably seen by their creator as innovative and original.  They are not however.  The cross was originally a pagan sex symbol, meant to symbolize a male penetrating a female.  With the encouragement of St. Paul, however, the early Christians adopted many pagan practices, such as Sunday observance, Easter etc.  Use of the cross is another such borrowing.

In the original Greek of the New Testament there is no mention of Christ dying on a cross.  The words usually translated as "cross" are either "xylon", which simply means "wood" or "stauros", which simply means "stake'.  Christ was executed by nailing him to a stake with his hands both directly above his head.  Why bother to add a crossbar when a simple stake could do all that was needed? -- JR

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Japanese north–south gradient in IQ predicts differences in stature, skin color, income, and homicide rate

By Kenya Kura

A fascinating academic journal article from Japan below.  The Japanese and Chinese are less politically correct in talking about race than Americans are -- if only because they mostly believe that THEY are a superior race.  And in average IQ terms, they are.

And the finding below, that high IQ people in Japan are taller, richer and less prone to crime and divorce, agrees well with American findings going back as far as the 1920s.

Not mentioned in the Abstract below but mentioned in the body of the article, is that the Koreans and Chinese score a touch higher on IQ than the Japanese do  -- only by about one or two points but that is in the opposite direction to what one would expect.  The Japanese are more Westernized than the Chinese are  -- though that difference is diminishing rapidly -- so if there were any "Western" bias in the tests (which Leftists often assert there is), one would have expected the Japanese to be slightly ahead.  Clearly, any "bias" in the tests is not detectable in the far East  -- being detectable only by American Ivy League "wisdom".

But there is one point inferable from the findings below that seems at first completely regular  -- the finding that the closer you get to the equator, the browner and dumber you get.  The Japanese archipelago does cover a very considerable North/South range so there is plenty of room for that to emerge. So the really smart Japanese are in the Northern Prefectures of Honshu while the dumbest are in Okinawa.

And in South-East Asia we find the same phenomenon.  Filipinos and Malaysian Bumiputras are notably browner and less bright than North-East Asians.

But that is not as regular as one might think.  There are a number of exceptions to the rule.  South Africa has a climate similar to Europe (if you have experienced a Bloemfontein winter you will know what I mean) yet the Bantu (South African negroes) are no brighter than any other Africans as far as we can tell.  But that is only a superficial puzzle.  The Bantu are recent immigrants originating in central Africa.  The whites in fact arrived in South Africa before the Bantu did.

The Bushmen (original inhabitants) of South Africa are a little more of a puzzle as they are very primitive indeed.  They are short of stature and live these days in extremely arid regions.  Perhaps they always did live in arid regions to escape the many fierce predators in the rest of Africa.

And Tasmanian Aborigines were also at an extremely low civilizational level (they did not even use fire) before white-man diseases killed them all off.  Yet Tasmania has a climate quite similar to England.  Tasmania is however a rather small island that was cut off from the rest of Australia for many millennia -- and isolated populations are often backward.  It appears that lots of invasions are needed to perk up average IQ  -- which is why Eurasia is home to all the high IQ populations.  Invaders can very easily sweep for long distances across Eurasia -- as Genghis Khan showed.

So the "exceptions" I have noted so far are all explicable by special factors.  But there is one exception that absolutely breaks the rule:  South India.  South Indians can be very dark in skin color indeed.  Yet they are far and away the brightest populations in India. The computer programmers, scientists and technologists in India come overwhelmingly from the South.  The recent amazing Indian Mars shot was almost entirely the work of Southerners.  It is no coincidence that Bangalore, India's science and technology hub, is in the South.

So what went on in the South to push them up the IQ scale is hard to say.  The nearest I can come to an explanation is to note that they all hate one-another.  The various regions have different languages and were often at war with one-another over the centuries.  So perhaps invasions did the trick there too. But then West Africans are are always fighting one-another as well ...

So perhaps we have to draw into the discussion that some evolutionarily recent DNA mutations affecting brain complexity did not spread to Africa.  Evolution can of course work either via natural selection or via mutations -- or both

A final note about the correlations reported below.  They seem unusually high.  That is common in "ecological" correlations (correlations between groups rather than individuals). It was Prefecture averages that formed the raw data below.  Individual correlations between similar variables can normally be expected to be much lower -- JR

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Abstract

Regional differences in IQ are estimated for 47 prefectures of Japan. IQ scores obtained from official achievement tests show a gradient from north to south. Latitudes correlate with height, IQ, and skin color at r = 0.70, 0.44, 0.47, respectively. IQ also correlates with height (0.52), skin color (0.42), income (0.51) after correction, less homicide rate (− 0.60), and less divorce (− 0.69) but not with fertility infant mortality. The lower IQ in southern Japanese islands could be attributable to warmer climates with less cognitive demand for more than fifteen hundred years.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

New York Woman Guilty of Child Sex Abuse - Update

(Jefferson County, New York)

A jury deliberated Thursday and Friday for a total of about eight hours following a five-day trial before finding Nicole E. Hargis, 31, guilty of every count contained in two indictments against her.

The indictments, one handed up in September 2013 and a second in March, alleged she abused the children, who ranged in ages from 10 to 16, from the fall of 2007 to June 2012.

The jury found her guilty of two counts of predatory sexual act against a child, 35 counts of second-degree criminal sex act, four counts of third-degree rape and three counts each of third-degree criminal sex act, second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

The two counts of predatory sexual assault against a child can carry a sentence of up to life in prison upon conviction.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 2, 2015.

* * * * *
New York Woman and Two Teens
[Previous 8/16/12 post]
(Jefferson County, New York) A 28-year-old local woman, Nicole E. Hargis, has been accused of engaging in sex with two teenage boys, ages 15 and 16.

The offenses allegedly occurred between January 2011 and June 2012.

Hargis has been charged with four counts of rape in the third degree, one count of rape in the second degree, one count of criminal sexual act in the third degree and sexual abuse in the second degree.

Hargis’ arrest stems from a complaint filed with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Hargis was booked into custody with bond set at $15,000.

Delaware Teacher Gets Probation for Sex With Boy, 13 - Update

(Camden, Delaware)

A former Delaware middle school English teacher must register as a sex offender after she admitted to raping a 13-year-old boy.

Former Fifer Middle School teacher Stephanie Seabury pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree rape in Kent County Court Wednesday, said the Delaware Department of Justice.

Seabury was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

* * * * *
Delaware Teacher Accused of Sex With Boy, 13
[Previous 4/28/14 post]
(Camden, Delaware) A 22-year-old English teacher at Fred Fifer III Middle School, Stephanie Seabury, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old male student.

Seabury faces one count of sexual abuse of a child by a person in a position of trust or authority.

Investigators said Seabury and the student met numerous times at a pre-determined location, then went to her apartment in Dover.

Police said they believe that on Feb. 26, the two had sex at Seabury's apartment after driving the student there after school.

Investigators said they were able to retrieve surveillance footage of Seabury and the student exiting the school and walking toward the teacher's vehicle shortly before 4 p.m. on that date.

Seabury was arrested with bond set at $40,000.

Alabama Family Child Sex Abuse Ring

(Bay Minette, Alabama) Yesterday, 35-year-old Wendy Wood Holland was convicted of sodomy, sexual abuse, sexual torture and child endangerment charges tied to an alleged sex ring.

Notably, Wendy Holland's husband, Donnie, was investigated as the leader of the alleged sex ring. Within days, Donnie Holland reportedly killed himself.

Witnesses heard two days of testimony in her trial that didn't give any clues about the whereabouts of her 19-year-old niece Brittney Wood.

Wood was last seen with Holland's husband, Donnie, in 2012, and 11 people have since been arrested on sex-related charges. That includes Wendy Holland, on trial on charges of sexually abusing another underage relative.

Authorities said Wood could provide important evidence about sexual crimes by her adult relatives if only they could find her alive. But searches and two years of investigation have failed to turn up any sign of her. Police believe Wood is dead, possibly killed in the days before the case went public.[…]

Prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments that Wendy Holland, her late husband and others were monsters who subjected their own children and others to perversions that were almost too depraved to understand, with parents and in-laws using their own young relatives for sex.

Holland used sex toys and other forms of stimulation to groom the alleged victim for sex with adults at an age children typically are watching "Sesame Street" and learning to color, prosecution witnesses told the jury.

A sentencing date for Wendy Holland has not been reported.

Reindeer Populations On The Decline Due To Climate Change, Study Says

An old trick:  Choosing start and end points without looking at the in-between. Chinese reindeer populations may indeed have dropped over 25 percent since "the 1970s".  But if, as alleged, that was due to global warming, the population drop must now have ceased and the population must now be stable.  Why?  Because the warming stopped rising 18 years ago.  The temperature is stable to within hundredths of a degree.

We also read that the reindeer population in the Taymyr peninsula of Russia, "has declined from about 1 million reindeer in 2000 to 700,000 in 2013".   Sad, no doubt, but warming was not the culprit -- because there wasn't any warming over that period

Reindeer populations across the world are plummeting, thanks to a combination of factors including climate change and human interference, a new study has found. This decrease could actually have lasting effects on climate change, even outside of the Arctic.

The study, which focused on reindeer native to China, found that the populations have seen large declines. In China, reindeer populations have dropped over 25 percent since the 1970s. Mount Daxinganling is the main habitat for reindeer in China. It has been negatively impacted by climate change, causing to soil degradation and higher temperatures, which have hurt reindeer. Human interference, such as poaching for antlers which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, the selling of reindeer to tourists, and reindeer being killed by cars, also have hurt the populations in China.

While the study focuses solely on reindeer populations in China, the trend is not limited to that country. A 2013 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that major reindeer herds in Alaska, Canada, and Russia have all seen declines in population. The largest herd, located in the Taymyr peninsula of Russia, has declined from about 1 million reindeer in 2000 to 700,000 in 2013. The report also found that many reindeer herd’s ranges are smaller than they have been in the past. In 2012, the International Fund of Wildlife’s Jeff Flocken said there has been roughly a 60 percent decline from historical high levels, and that the decline was caused by climate change.

Loss of reindeer populations could actually exacerbate climate change. Researchers in Finland have found that grazing by reindeer can help prevent solar heat absorption which can lead to climate change. In their study, they found that areas where reindeer did not graze had higher levels of heat radiation, thanks to higher levels of shrubs and trees that absorbed heat. A Swedish study has found that reindeer can also prevent the climate-change-caused spread of invasive species in the Arctic tundra.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

College Pays Students for "C" in Math

(Tampa, Florida)

A Florida community college is trying to inspire students to finish their degree by doling out up to $1,800 in cash to students who make a C or higher in three semesters of math courses.

The program, called Mathematic Access Scholarship Program (MAPS), has run at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) for the past three years and is spearheaded by Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC).[…]

Participants in the program could earn $600 per semester, for three semesters. Students were also required to attend tutoring sessions and utilize academic support services. Students who earned a “B” or better received a math textbook or book voucher for the next math course in the sequence.

"[T]hese math classes were a major barrier to student success,” Craig R. Johnson, Vice President of HCC's Academic Affairs, told Campus Reform in an email. “We hoped the incentives would inspire behaviors that would lead to increased student success.”

Reportedly, the paying-for-grades program awaits a final determination of success.

Emery Barcs -- 1905-1990

Emery Barcs (born Imre Bruchsteiner) was a Hungarian Jewish journalist who escaped to Australia in 1938  -- fleeing Fascist persecution.  He seems to have acquired English easily and in my youth I often read newspaper articles by him.  He was especially informative about the Communist world.  Something he wrote in 1961 will ring a bell:  "Under Communism if theory clashes with facts then it's just too bad for the facts".

As a belated acknowledgement of my debt to him, I have just put 12 of his old newspaper articles online  -- written between 1950 and 1970.  There are no other articles of his online that I know of -- though diligent mining of Trove might turn up something.  See my collection of his articles here.  If he had been pro-Communist, every word he ever wrote would already be online, of course.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). 

Illinois Teacher Pleads Guilty to Drug Charge - Update

(Granite City, Illinois)

Paulina Marie Suess, 37, who has been free on bail since shortly after she was charged, pleaded guilty with no agreement as to the sentence. The charge is punishable by probation or between one and three years in prison.

In a hearing Monday, a prosecutor said Granite City police received an anonymous call that there was drug activity going on at the defendant’s home.

Police arrived to investigate on Nov. 28, 2011. While police were at the home, Suess arrived and was searched. Police found four “buttons” of heroin in her possession. A “button” is commonly a capsule filled with about one-tenth of a gram of the drug.

A sentencing date has not been reported.

* * * * *
Illinois Teacher Busted for Drugs
[Previous 12/3/11 post]
(Granite City, Illinois) A 34-year-old fourth-grade teacher at Wilson Elementary School, Paulina M. Suess, has been accused of possessing heroin.

Suess faces a charge of unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

Granite City police said they received information Suess was possibly involved in drug use. Police found enough evidence at her address to make an arrest. She was then arrested and taken to police headquarters.

Suess was booked into custody and released on $15,000 bond.

School board officials will address her teaching status at their December 13 meeting.

Report: Russian Economy Suffering

(Moscow, Russia) Due to sinking oil prices and Western economic sanctions, the Russian economy has been decimated. Russia is no longer the world's eighth largest economy.

Russia has lost its ranking as the world's eighth biggest economy, shrinking in just nine months from a $2.1 trillion petro-giant to a mid-size player comparable with Korea or Spain.

Apparently, it's a crisis for Putin.

Santa Claus Wage Rate

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Based on the average American's wages, Santa Claus would make about $140,000 a year.

That information comes from The Santa Index, a data set compiled annually. The group behind the index is called Insure, and they determine Santa's worth to figure out how much life insurance coverage he would need.

The index complies data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for each job that Father Christmas does to determine how much he would make.

The majority of Santa's salary would come from running the workshop. By working 8 hours a day for 364 days a year as an industrial engineer, according to the Santa Index, Father Christmas would pull in somewhere around $115,000.

OK

Report: Mossad Training Terrorists

Alexander Prokhanov
SOURCE:

A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, of training ISIL terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria, Press TV reports.

Alexander Prokhanov told Press TV that Mossad is also likely to have transferred some of its spying experiences to the ISIL leadership, adding that Israel’s military advisors could be assisting the Takfiri terrorists.

Prokhanov said ISIL is a byproduct of US policies in the Middle East.

"ISIL is a tool at the hands of the United States. They tell the Europeans that if we (the Americans) do not intervene, ISIL will cause you harm," he said, adding that Iran and Russia are the prime targets of the ISIL."

I suggest Prokhanov is full of Russian hooey.

Mistletoe Drones

Drone dangles mistletoe above kissing couple
(Sheepshead Bay, New York) Flying drones indoors is asking for trouble.

TGI Friday’s much-hyped “Mobile Mistletoe” drones drew first blood in their New York City debut on Dec. 4 at the chain’s beloved Sheepshead Bay location when one of them hit our intrepid photographer right in the face.

The two remote-controlled helicopters dangling sprigs of mistletoe were intended to spread holiday romance, but one of them flew out of control and clipped Courier photographer Georgine Benvenuto in the nose with one of its spinning, uncovered blades.

“It literally chipped off a tip of my nose,” said Benvenuto, using tissues to stanch the blood. “It took off part of my nose and cut me here, right under my chin.”

Benvenuto said she’s just thankful she wasn’t blinded in the name of love.

Sooner or later, I predict the indoor flying of drones will be tightly regulated.

Genetic determination of social class

Using twin studies, Charles Murray showed 2 decades ago that IQ is mainly genetically inherited and that IQ underlies social class.  The rich are brighter;  the poor are dumber.  The findings below reinforce that. The researchers were able to identify the actual DNA behind that relationship.  High IQ people and high status people had different DNA to low status and low IQ people.

The research also showed something else that people find hard to digest: That family environment matters hardly at all.  That repeatedly emerges in the twin studies but flies in the face of what people have believed for millennia: That your kid's upbringing matters.  It may matter in some ways (value acquisition?) but it has no influence on how bright the kid will be.  So now we have confirmation from a DNA study which shows that both IQ and social status are genetically determined.  Home environment has nothing to do with it.  The genes which give you a high IQ are the same ones that lead to high social status.

People can perhaps accept the genetic determination of IQ but accepting the genetic determination of social status will be more jarring.  The wise men all tell us that a good upbringing will make you more likely to get rich.  It won't.  What you have inherited in your genes (principally IQ) is what will make you rich or poor

To specify exactly what was found:  In a representative sample of the UK population, children from high status homes were found to be genetically different from children from low status homes -- and the DNA differences concerned were also determinant of IQ

Genetic influence on family socioeconomic status and children's intelligence

Maciej Trzaskowskia et al.

Abstract

Environmental measures used widely in the behavioral sciences show nearly as much genetic influence as behavioral measures, a critical finding for interpreting associations between environmental factors and children's development. This research depends on the twin method that compares monozygotic and dizygotic twins, but key aspects of children's environment such as socioeconomic status (SES) cannot be investigated in twin studies because they are the same for children growing up together in a family. Here, using a new technique applied to DNA from 3000 unrelated children, we show significant genetic influence on family SES, and on its association with children's IQ at ages 7 and 12. In addition to demonstrating the ability to investigate genetic influence on between-family environmental measures, our results emphasize the need to consider genetics in research and policy on family SES and its association with children's IQ.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Germans Protest Islam

SOURCE:

A new type of anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

The new protests, which began in the city of Dresden in the former East Germany, feature no neo-Nazi slogans and have nothing to do with the traditional far right.

Instead the demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”. They say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture.

The protests come as Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) is seeking to distance itself from a draft proposal for its party conference which said that immigrants should speak German not only in public, but at home as well.

Germany is now the second most popular destination in the world for migrants, after the US, and the country is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers.

It's suggested that continued peaceful protests might morph into violence.

NJ Teacher Accused of Sex with Another Student - Update

Linda Hardan
(Wayne, New Jersey)

A substitute teacher who was arrested two weeks ago on charges that she sexually assaulted a 16-year-old student at Manchester Regional High School has been arrested again on new charges involving a grade school student in Haledon.

Authorities first arrested Linda Hardan, 21, and accused her of taking a student to a location in Wayne on Nov. 20 and engaging in sex with him. Passaic County prosecutors added sexting charges against Hardan a few days later, alleging that she texted sexually explicit photos to another 16-year-old student at Manchester.

The charges announced Monday involve a 14-year-old eighth grader at a Haledon public school, where Hardan is also a substitute teacher, Passaic County prosecutors said.

Two victims, eh?

* * * * *
NJ Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 11/22/14 post]
(Wayne, New Jersey) A 21-year-old substitute teacher at Manchester Regional High School, Linda Hardan, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student.

Hardan faces counts of sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal sexual contact.

The alleged sexual assault occurred in Wayne on Thursday, Valdes said. Hardan, who worked as a substitute teacher at Manchester Regional High School, was charged the next day following an investigation by the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims Unit, she said.

Manchester Regional High School Principal Richard Ney said Hardan was an employee of the Passaic County Education Services Commission, not the school district. Hardan worked at MRHS about a half dozen times and was serving as a substitute this past week for one the school's science teachers, he said.

Hardan was booked into custody at the Passaic County Jail with bail set at $250,000.

Most Vegans Change Their Minds

SOURCE:

Just when herbivores — be they vegan or vegetarian — thought they had all this good mojo going into the holidays and didn’t have to make that hapless “I’ll start dieting” resolution, comes some bad news and buyer’s remorse.

According to the Humane Research Council, more than 84 percent of all veggie lovers relapse to the tune of a steak dinner. And then, Che Green, executive director of the HRC, provides the Captain Obvious moment of 2014:

“It’s obviously a negative for animals.”

OK

MEGA-PESKY for the Left!  Republicans found to be brighter than Democrats>

Leftists never give up asserting that they are the brightest but the research results below are well founded and are clearly against them.  The findings even held among whites only.  And the ardent Democrats were dumbest of all!  The author is a bit apologetic about measuring mainly verbal ability but verbal ability is the best proxy for IQ as a whole so that need not detain us.

The final comment below about different types of Republicans is just a speculation.  It was not examined in the research.

The differences found were slight, however so are not something for anyone to hang their hat on.  The findings are primarily useful for shooting back at Leftist claims of superiority -- claims which are in fact intrinsic to Leftism.  They claim to "know best"

For my previous discussions of  IQ and politics see here and here and here and here

Cognitive ability and party identity in the United States

Noah Carl

Abstract

Carl (2014) analysed data from the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS), and found that individuals who identify as Republican have slightly higher verbal intelligence than those who identify as Democrat. An important qualification was that the measure of verbal intelligence used was relatively crude, namely a 10-word vocabulary test. This study examines three other measures of cognitive ability from the GSS: a test of probability knowledge, a test of verbal reasoning, and an assessment by the interviewer of how well the respondent understood the survey questions. In all three cases, individuals who identify as Republican score slightly higher than those who identify as Democrat; the unadjusted differences are 1–3 IQ points, 2–4 IQ points and 2–3 IQ points, respectively. Path analyses indicate that the associations between cognitive ability and party identity are largely but not totally accounted for by socio-economic position: individuals with higher cognitive ability tend to have better socio-economic positions, and individuals with better socio-economic positions are more likely to identify as Republican. These results are consistent with Carl's (2014) hypothesis that higher intelligence among classically liberal Republicans compensates for lower intelligence among socially conservative Republicans.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Connecticut Woman Faces Murder Charge

(Bridgeport, Connecticut) A 36-year-old local woman, Grisselle Pizarro, has been accused of killing her boyfriend, Jacob Lopez, 33.

Pizarro was arrested and charged with murder and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

Around 1:17 a.m. on Sunday, police responded to the 200 block of Huntington Turnpike. There they found Lopez standing outside of a pick-up truck.

He was suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. Lopez was transported to Bridgeport Hospital where is was pronounced dead shortly before 6 a.m.

While en route to the hospital, Lopez told police "Grisselle shot me."

Reportedly, Pizarro confessed to police that she shot Lopez.