| View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. By Shimon Prokupecz, Katherine Creag and Gus Rosendale, NBCNewYork.com An unarmed man was shot and killed by a New York police detective early Thursday after the man had been pulled over by two police cars in Queens, N.Y., authorities said. Noel Polanco, 22, was on his way home to Corona, N.Y., from his job at the Ice Lounge in Astoria Thursday morning when he was shot at about 5:15 a.m. He had offered a ride to a colleague, bartender Diana Deferrari, and another woman, who was an off-duty police officer, according to law enforcement sources. All three lived in the same part of Queens. As they headed home on the Grand Central Parkway near LaGuardia Airport, Polanco was pulled over after cutting off what turned out to be an unmarked police van. When Polanco stopped the car, a detective approached the vehicle and asked him to show his hands, according to police. Police said Polanco reached under his seat and appeared to grab for a yellow electric power drill with a black handle. That's when the detective, Hassan Hamdy, 39, a 14-year veteran assigned to the Emergency Service Unit, fired a single shot through the passenger-side window and hit Polanco in the stomach. He was taken to New York Hospital Queens, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later. Passenger claims incident was police 'road rage' Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter "This was an act of road rage by the police because my friend cut him off, cut off the police," she told reporters Thursday. "The police proceeded to chase us, sticking their middle finger at us and screaming obscenities at the car." No gun was recovered from the car. The off-duty police officer in the car, who was in the backseat, told investigators she was asleep when the shooting happened. Polanco's mother, Cecelia Reyes, said she demands justice for her son. More on this story on NBCNewYork.com "They're just gonna take my son like that ... like he's some kind of criminal ... 22 years old, never got in trouble. I want justice for my son," sobbed Reyes. "I'm not gonna let his memory stay like this. He was not a bad kid." Polanco served in the U.S. Army for four years, enlisting in April 2008. He was assigned to the 1156th Engineer Company headquartered in Kingston, N.Y. Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com "He actually joined the Army because he wanted to be a cop," said Noel De La Rosa, a friend of Polanco. "He said, 'Why don't I do this for a couple of years, and then I'll join the force.'" Another friend, Tito Cordero, said Polanco returned from a tour awhile back and in addition to bartending, had been working at a Honda dealership detailing cars. "He worked hard, two, three jobs," said Cordero. "He was a quiet, good kid. There's no aggressiveness in this kid." Reyes said her son wanted to become a police officer after serving in the National Guard. She says she plans to hire an investigator to review the case. Complete US coverage on NBCNews.com Series of fatal NYPD shootings In August, New York police officers shot and killed a 51-year-old man wielding a kitchen knife in touristy Times Square. Following the incident, police said the man lunged at them. Also in August, two officers shot and killed an armed man who had just killed a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building. During the incident, nine bystanders were injured by ricocheting bullets from officers' gunfire. NBC News staff contributed to this report More content from NBCNews.com:
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10/05/2012
Unarmed man shot dead by police in NYC
Wolves likely real target of poison that killed dog
 Defenders of Wildlife This gray wolf is part of a pack near Ketchum, Idaho, that might have been the intended targets of poison-laced meat. By Miguel Llanos, NBC News Fearing that someone is trying to kill gray wolves in central Idaho, an environmental group and a sheep ranch this week put up a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever laced meat with poison that instead killed one dog and sickened another. That the poisoning happened wasn't so much a surprise. The resurgence of gray wolves across the Pacific Northwest is controversial, including this area of central Idaho known as the "sheep superhighway." But Defenders of Wildlife and the Flat Top Ranch hope their reward will galvanize locals and showcase the value of using non-lethal tools to try to minimize wolf conflicts. "It would be a real shame for incidents like this to undermine all our hard work," Suzanne Stone, the Defender of Wildlife's Northern Rockies representative, said in a statement announcing the reward. "We hope the community will use this as a rallying cry to continue promoting greater tolerance for all native wildlife." John Peavey, owner of Flat Top Ranch, acknowledged that the resurgence of wolves has meant "many challenges," but he added that "we must meet them within the framework of our laws. Those responsible need to be brought to justice." The poisonings happened in mid-August, when two dogs fell sick after eating chunks of meat while on separate hikes with their owners outside Ketchum, a town that also is home to the world-famous Sun Valley Lodge and ski resort. One dog died a few days later, while the other recovered. The meat was poisoned with Xylitol, an artificial sweetener used in human food but which can be lethal to animals by causing a surge in insulin and becoming toxic to its liver. Xylitol first surfaced in connection with wolves in 2010 when anti-wolf activist Toby Bridges blogged that many hunters were packing "a healthy dose of the sweetener whenever they head out for big game." He also warned hunters to make sure their dogs didn't get near poisoned carcasses. Washington state completes a sharpshooter cull of a wolf pack that had been feeding on livestock. KING's Gary Chittim reports. Stone told NBC News she didn't know of any confirmed cases of wolves being poisoned with Xylitol, but added that federal and state officials with whom she met suspected the batch eaten by the dogs was meant for wolves. Gray wolves used to be abundant across the Northwest, but settlers a century ago nearly wiped them out. In the 1990s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began an effort to return them to the northern Rockies, bringing 66 wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho from Canada. The wolves eventually went beyond the park's borders and into other parts of Wyoming and neighboring states. About 1,400 are in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where wolves were taken off the federal endangered list due to their rising numbers. The poisoning incident comes after several years of progress with local sheep ranchers in minimizing wolf attacks, she added.  Defenders of Wildlife A hidden camera used to track wolves captures the alpha female of a pack near Ketchum, Idaho, in mid-August along with her pups. Part of what's known as the Wood River Wolf Project, those non-lethal tools include:
 Lava Lake Lamb A herder with Lava Lake Lamb sets up a fence made with flags to deter gray wolves as part of the Wood River Wolf Project in Idaho. "Our field crew has spent more than 70 nights camping with the sheep bands this summer," Stone said. "The deterrents are working very well despite the almost constant presence of wolves near sheep." Out of more than 10,000 sheep in the area, she added, just four were lost this summer. Those four sheep belonged to a project partner who initially wanted the wolves killed but then backed off when it was realized the pack was a new one that hadn't been tracked, Stone said. "As a result of his support," she said, "no wolves were killed and our nonlethal deterrents kept wolves from killing more sheep since that event in early July." Related: Killing of wolf pack draws anger of key lawmaker This week and next, field crews will sleep with a band of sheep as it makes its way down the "sheep superhighway" and then through Ketchum on Oct. 13 for the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival, Stone said. "We have wolves right where the sheep are now," she told the Idaho Mountain Express. "We've had our field crew intercept wolves coming in to howl and bark at the dogs. So far, the deterrents have been holding." Defenders of Wildlife explains its Wood River Wolf Project. More content from NBCNews.com:
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Up for grabs: $300M estate of heiress Huguette Clark
 W.A. Clark Memorial Library Huguette Clark with a doll in the 1910s. NEW YORK — The stakes have been set in the battle over the wealth of copper heiress Huguette Clark. More than $300 million is on the table as her extended family prepares for a court battle with her nurse and others for the last whispers of one of the great fortunes from America's Gilded Age. At her death on May 24, 2011, in the New York City hospital where she had lived for 20 years, the daughter of one of the copper kings of Montana possessed about $306.5 million, counting all her real estate, stocks, bonds, cash, trusts and personal property. The accounting was filed this week in Surrogate's Court in Manhattan by the office of the public administrator, the temporary executor of her estate. Clark's estimated property values:
 John L. Wiley, http://flickr.com/photos/jw4pix/ Bellosguardo, the Huguette Clark summer home in Santa Barbara, Calif. Her executor estimates its value at $85 million. Other estimates have run to $100 million. It could go to a new arts foundation, or to her extended family. The net value of the estate will be less. Federal and state estate taxes must be paid, and unpaid federal gift taxes are due to the IRS. And the estate could increase in value if the executor is successful in efforts to claw back more than $44 million in gifts that were given to Clark's nurses, doctors, hospital and others in her later years. Huguette (pronounced "u-GET") Marcelle Clark, born in Paris in 1906, inherited her fortune from William Andrews Clark (1839-1925), a U.S. senator from Montana who was among the richest men of the Gilded Age, a copper miner, banker, builder of railroads, and founder of the city of Las Vegas. His youngest daughter attracted the attention of NBC News in 2009 because of her vacant but well-manicured mansions and questions about the management of her money. She lived her last 20 years in spartan hospital rooms, dying just weeks before her 105th birthday. The archive of Clark stories, photos and videos is at http://nbcnews.com/clark/. Signed two wills The first will left $5 million to her private-duty registered nurse, Hadassah Peri, leaving the bulk of her estate to her relatives from her father's first marriage. The family members were not named in that will, which left the estate to her "intestate distributees," legal language for the people who would inherit if she died without a will. Because Clark had been married only briefly, and had no children, her closest relatives were the descendants of her father from the first marriage. These were Huguette Clark's half great-nieces and half great-nephews, and their children. Huguette and her four half-siblings had each received one-fifth shares of W.A. Clark's empire in 1925. Huguette's mother, Anna, received Bellosguardo, which then passed down to Huguette. Just six weeks passed before Clark signed a new will. It specified that she intentionally left no money to family, with whom the will said she had little contact. The family is claiming that this will was the product of fraud. The newer document leaves the largest share of her fortune to a museum or art foundation to be set up at her oceanfront estate in Santa Barbara. Specific bequests are made to her attorney, accountant, doctor and others, and the remainder is split among the nurse, a goddaughter and the California foundation. (See the earlier story and read the documents: A twist: Heiress Huguette Clark signed two wills.) Originally the temporary executors of the Clark estate were her attorney and accountant, but the court revoked the accountant's authority, and suspended the attorney from his role, leaving only the public administrator to manage the estate for now. The judge, Surrogate Kristin Booth Glen, acted after the public administrator's attorney revealed that Clark had not filed gift tax returns from 1997 through 2003, leaving her owing millions in taxes plus interest and possible penalties. (See the earlier story: Judge bounces attorney, accountant.) Preparing for trial Though a criminal investigation was launched in August 2010 into the handling of Clark's finances by her attorney and accountant, no one has been charged with any crime. Both men have maintained that they did nothing more than carry out the wishes of a woman who wanted to protect her privacy. The investigation continues by the Elder Abuse Unit of the New York County District Attorney's Office. The investigation was prompted in part by reports by NBC News about the sale of property owned by Clark, including a Stradivarius violin and a Renoir painting. Clark's jewelry collection was sold at auction in April for $18.3 million. That money will be held by the estate during the contest over the wills. Her country estate in Connecticut is for sale, recently marked down to $15.9 million. Her estate in Santa Barbara is being carefully maintained, awaiting the court's decision. Do you have information on the Clark family? The full story More from Open Channel:
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Raging floods wash hippos into homes
Hero's welcome for US soldier who lost 4 limbs
 Carlos Osorio / AP Chloe Mills, 1-year-old daughter of Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills and his wife Kelsey, crawls past her father's walking legs in his boyhood home in Vassar, Mich., on Oct. 4, 2012.  Carlos Osorio / AP Travis Mills plays with his daughter Chloe. The Associated Press reports from Vassar, Mich. — Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills had been a lot of places since losing his four limbs in Afghanistan. The one place he hadn't been was where people knew him best. He finally returned to his Michigan hometown this week — six months after the explosion that cost him his arms and legs — to serve as the grand marshal of his old high school's homecoming parade. "This is my new normal, and it's all about how I adjust to it," he said moments after using his prosthetic legs to walk from the living room to the sun room at his childhood home. "There's no good that's gonna come from me sitting there and wondering, 'Why'd this happen? Why me? Now what do I do?' The answer's right in front of you: It happened because it happened." Read the full story.  Carlos Osorio / AP Mills, right, is helped with his home legs by his father, Dennis Mills.  Carlos Osorio / AP Kelsey Mills helps her husband navigate the newly installed ramp at his boyhood home.  Carlos Osorio / AP Travis Mills rides in the back of a Jeep during the homecoming parade on Thursday, Oct. 4. Mills, his wife, Kelsey, and their 1-year-old daughter, Chloe, were the grand marshals of Vassar High School's homecoming parade.  Carlos Osorio / AP Julie Best, a friend of Travis Mills, cheers as he rides in the homecoming parade. Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter
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NJ teachers accused of 'hooking up' with students
| View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com. By NBCPhiladelphia.com, NBC News staff and wire reports Three New Jersey high school teachers have been arrested and accused of having inappropriate sexual relations with three female students, while two school administrators face charges for allegedly covering up the scandal, authorities said Thursday. Teachers Jeffrey Logandro, Daniel Michielli and Nicholas Martinelli of Triton High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Runnemede voluntarily turned themselves into the authorities on Thursday, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported. Read the story on NBCPhiladelphia.com Principal Catherine DePaul and Vice Principal Jernee Kollock also facing charges of official misconduct for allegedly knowing about the sexual allegations and not reporting them to law enforcement. Each of the five adults has been suspended from the school, and each could face at least five years in prison if convicted. 'Explicit text messages' "It's obvious there existed a culture at Triton High School whereby teachers thought they could get away with improper relationships with their students and administrators turned a blind eye," said Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk at a Thursday afternoon press conference. "The improper relationships between the teachers and students were fostered through social media as well as socializing in person outside the school. Indeed we uncovered evidence of sexually explicit text messages during instructional periods," Faulk said. Prosecutors say the three teachers were friends, and the relationships they had with the students lasted from November 2011 until June 2012. The teachers are also accused of taking a trip to Ocean City, N.J. with the victims over a school break. School policy prohibits teachers from socializing outside of school and communicating by phone or text message. The arrests were made after a two-month investigation by the Camden County Prosecutors Office. 'Hooking up' with students Gym teacher and boys' soccer coach Nick Martinelli, 28, of Cherry Hill, is charged with official misconduct involving an 18-year-old. He allegedly touched and kissed the girl when she was a student and had intercourse with her after she graduated in June. Math teacher and girls' track coach Jeff Logandro, 32, of Blackwood, is charged with official misconduct, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. A court filing says he inappropriately touched a female student. Authorities say a student, not one of the alleged victims, told a substitute teacher in April that teachers were "hooking up" with students. Authorities say the substitute teacher then told DePaul. Prosecutors say the principal met with the student, who told her she'd been to one of the teacher's homes with a girl who was involved with him and had seen the explicit text messages. Authorities say that DePaul asked her to write an account of what she had heard and that Assistant Principal Jernee Kollock stayed with the student to help her write the statement, even helping her with her grammar — but also making it seem less serious. More US coverage from NBC News Around the same time, Faulk said, DePaul learned one of the teachers had driven an alleged victim and another student to Ocean City in violation of district policy. But, he said, the teacher was merely reprimanded. Faulk said neither administrator contacted authorities. Both were charged with official misconduct. Faulk said DePaul later said she wished she had been more concerned for the students than the teachers. The defendants either could not be reached or did not return messages left Thursday afternoon by The Associated Press. All five are due in court Oct. 11. The teachers were suspended by the Black Horse Regional School District last month; the administrators were suspended Thursday. Superintendent John Golden said in a statement that the district was cooperating with authorities, notifying families of students of what allegedly happened and offering counseling. "In addition, we have initiated a comprehensive review of our existing policies, protocols and training and education materials to prevent this from happening again at this or any district school," the statement said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
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