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ALACHUA ‒ A 51-year-old man from New York, Umardeo Roopnarine, was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, and charged with stalking and burglary after allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home in Alachua and hiding inside.

The incident occurred when Roopnarine reportedly entered the woman's house while she was away and concealed himself in a child's room. Upon her return with friends the next morning, the victim discovered him crouching in a corner, where he gestured for her to remain quiet. She immediately alerted her friends, who distracted Roopnarine while she called the police.

An officer from the Alachua Police Department (APD) had already been dispatched to the residence the previous day, Aug. 21, 2024, after the victim reported that Roopnarine had followed her from New York to Florida. According to her, she had allowed him to live in her new home temporarily but had asked him to leave. The victim described an incident in which she awoke to find Roopnarine holding a knife, threatening to kill both her and himself if she refused to be with him. Fearing for her safety, she reported the incident to the authorities.

Officers were unable to locate Roopnarine at the residence on Aug. 21, but they did find his car parked down the road. Later, they observed him walking out of the victim's driveway. When questioned by the police, Roopnarine denied threatening the victim and claimed they had moved to Florida together. He agreed to leave the property voluntarily and was formally trespassed from the premises. Despite his admission, officers found no probable cause to arrest him at that time.

The situation escalated when Roopnarine was discovered inside the home the following morning on Aug. 22, 2024. Post-Miranda, he reportedly admitted to entering through a locked rear door the previous night to “take a shower and rest,” despite knowing he was not permitted on the property.

Roopnarine was charged with burglary, stalking, and trespassing after a warning. During his initial court appearance, he informed a court official that he had been in the area for two weeks and disclosed a prior criminal conviction in New York from 2017.

Judge Kristine Van Vorst ordered Roopnarine held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney's Office to hold him without bail until trial. Bail was later set at $100,000.

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ALACHUA ‒ The Alachua Police Department (APD) conducted an intensive active shooter training session on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, at the Santa Fe Institute of Public Safety. The training, hosted by C3 Pathways / NCIER, focused on equipping APD supervisors and officers with the necessary skills to respond effectively to active shooter situations.

The training session, named Active Shooter Incident Management Basic Training, aimed to prepare law enforcement personnel, fire departments, and EMS responders to handle active shooter incidents swiftly and efficiently.

Active shooter incidents are unpredictable and can happen anywhere, from schools and workplaces to public spaces. The devastating impact of these events has highlighted the critical need for comprehensive training for first responders, including law enforcement, fire departments, and emergency medical services (EMS). Active shooter training is essential for preparing first responders to effectively manage and mitigate these high-stress, rapidly evolving situations.

The training brought together various law enforcement agencies, highlighting the importance of interagency cooperation in emergency situations. By fostering a unified approach to crisis management, the training sought to improve communication and coordination among different first responders, ensuring a more effective response during critical incidents.

Every second counts during an active shooter incident. Proper training helps reduce response times by ensuring that first responders are familiar with their roles and can quickly deploy strategies to contain the threat. The program emphasizes three critical components: Command, Control, and Communications. These elements are crucial in ensuring that all first responders work as a cohesive team during emergencies, understanding their roles, and executing their duties seamlessly to protect and save lives.

APD emphasized the importance of such training in an online post, stating, “We're committed to the safety and well-being of our community, and continuous training like this is a critical part of that commitment.”

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GAINESVILLE – Santa Fe College's Cardiovascular Sonography Program is offering free ultrasound tests for heart and carotid arteries this fall. These tests are available to Santa Fe employees, their families, friends, and the general public, providing an excellent opportunity for individuals to check their cardiovascular health at no cost.

The only requirement for participants is that they must be at least 18 years old. The ultrasound tests are designed to assess the heart's structure and function and check for any potential blockages in the carotid arteries, which are vital for carrying blood to the brain.

Testing will take place in the W-Annex on Santa Fe College's Northwest Campus located at 3000 NW 83^rd Street, Gainesville. The available dates for these tests are:

• Friday, Aug. 30
• Friday, Sept. 27
• Friday, Oct. 25

This initiative aims to provide a valuable service to the community while offering hands-on learning experiences for students in the Cardiovascular Sonography Program. Participants will not only benefit from early detection of potential heart and vascular issues but also contribute to the practical training of future healthcare professionals.

Anyone interested in taking part in these free tests is encouraged to contact Jennifer Weeks at 352-395-5972 or via email at jennifer.weeks@sfcollege.edu to schedule an appointment or get more information.

Don’t miss this opportunity to take a proactive step toward your health and support the education of Santa Fe College's students. For more information, visit the Santa Fe College website or reach out directly to the contact provided.

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ALACHUA ‒ The Alachua Business League (ABL) held their first workshop of the year, titled “Mobile Mastery with Moxie Media” at the Good Life Station on Main Street in Alachua.

Joe Hancock, with Moxie Media, described to a full house how each person in the room has the ability to use their own cell phone to do advertising videos for their own business. He touched on the basics of composition and lighting, but stressed how easy it is to get your message out through social media without spending a lot of time or money. It was a timely subject and got a good reception from those in attendance.

Next month Campus USA Credit Union in Alachua is hosting a “Meet & Greet” on Monday, Sept. 16 at 6 P.M. Check the new and improved ABL website at www.alachuabusiness.com for more information and to RSVP.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ A 60-year-old man from Alachua was arrested Monday afternoon, Aug. 19, 2024, after allegedly driving a tractor under the influence of alcohol and without a valid license on Main Street in High Springs.

The High Springs Police Department (HSPD) reported that around 4:40 p.m., an officer observed a green John Deere tractor weaving across lanes as it traveled north on Main Street. According to the officer’s report, the tractor crossed a double yellow line twice and entered the opposite lane to pass a line of cars, prompting a traffic stop.

The driver, identified as Rance Edward Shannon, presented a Florida identification card rather than a valid driver’s license when stopped. The officer noted two beers on the floorboard of the tractor and detected a strong odor of urine and alcohol emanating from Shannon. Additionally, Shannon’s speech was reportedly slurred, and he had difficulty standing when exiting the tractor.

Shannon was reportedly unable to perform field sobriety exercises “due to his level of influence.”

Further investigation revealed Shannon’s extensive criminal history, including 16 felony convictions—five of which were violent—and two previous felony DUI convictions. Shannon also has 36 misdemeanor convictions, including three for DUI, and has served seven state prison sentences. His most recent release was in September 2023.

Bail was set at $4,000 by Judge Kristine Van Vorst with a requirement for a Transdermal Alcohol Detection device.

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~As a crew member on board the Blue Origin New Shepherd rocket, UF/IFAS researcher Rob Ferl will test how plants know they’re in space~

GAINESVILLE ‒ How do plants adapt when they go into space?

That’s the question the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) hopes to answer with a novel space-based experiment happening Thursday at 9 a.m. EST when a UF/IFAS horticultural sciences researcher launches with his experiment into suborbital space on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.

Rob Ferl, the University of Florida Astraeus Space Institute director, will fly in the Blue Origin craft and perform the experiment himself. The experiment builds on prior research that showed a type of plant – Arabidopsis thaliana – can detect that it is in space and then change how its genes are expressed.

"This moment is a milestone not just for the University of Florida and the Astraeus Space Institute but for an entire community of scientists who can now consider experiments in space that might have previously been viewed as impossible," said UF Interim President Kent Fuchs. "I look forward to cheering Rob on during Thursday’s mission and to watching him make history yet again."

This experiment will determine which genes turn on and off at various stages of flight. Although much is known about how plants respond to living in spaceflight environments, like the International Space Station, researchers know less about how plants respond molecularly as they travel to space. The experiment will provide new insights into how plants adjust their gene expression as they transition from Earth to space.

One day, plants might be an essential part of space exploration as food and air scrubbers, and understanding how they react to a space environment is the first step toward learning how to effectively grow them there.

“We envision plants will keep us alive in space or on the Moon,” said Ferl, who is also assistant vice president for UF Research. “What does it take to adapt to living in space? We’d like to know.”

Anna-Lisa Paul, co-principal investigator for the experiment, a horticultural sciences research professor and director of UF’s Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, said researchers have only been able to see what this plant’s genes are like before and after space flight, not during.

“It’s something outside the evolutionary environment of any terrestrial species,” she said. “This is something we’re learning that has never been done before.”

The research was funded by a grant from NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and the agency’s Biological and Physical Sciences division.

Ferl will carry the plants in specialized tubes, called Kennedy Space Center Fixation Tubes (KFTs), that have a plunger to release a preservative solution. The tubes will be Velcroed to the legs of his flight suit during the flight. Before and after the flight, they will be moved in custom transit bags designed by the UF Space Plants Lab out of blackout fabric and a golden thermal blanket.

The experiment has a second purpose: to validate that having researchers do their own experiments on flights is a valuable use of research funding, rather than relying on untended experiments or robotics. This is the first NASA-supported researcher-tended suborbital flight.

“There’s something to be said about first-hand experience,” Ferl said. “The experiment is enriched when a human mind and a human brain go with it.”

The study will look at the plant’s transcriptome, the collection of all expressed RNA that contains answers to which genes are turned on and off to change the plant to adapt in a space environment. Ferl will chemically “lock” the genes with a preservative solution to pause the plants at a moment in time during various points in the launch – just before takeoff, at the start of zero gravity, at the end of zero gravity and at landing.

Researchers will then sequence the plants’ expressed genes and compare them to an on-Earth control experiment to figure out exactly which ones were activated or deactivated during the flight.

Jordan Callaham, assistant director for the UF Astraeus Space Institute and research coordinator for the UF Space Plants Lab in the UF/IFAS department of horticultural sciences, said this will help researchers begin to understand how plants would respond on space missions, on the Moon or on Mars. But it will also give them a better idea of the fundamental properties of the chemical pathways within plants and how they respond to all novel environments.

“We’re understanding how biology responds to space on a very basic level,” said Callaham, who will be doing the on-Earth control experiment while Ferl is on the Blue Origin rocket.

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