On Monday, SUNY Oswego students were subjected to some unusual surprise when a “preacher man” took over their quad and said what some students claimed were “offensive remarks and beliefs”.

Jim Deferrio, a middle aged man, was seen holding a sign preaching on the SUNY Oswego quad a variety of different ultra-religious phrases other remarks unpopular on a liberal public campus.

Students grouped around Deferrio and gave their input before he was asked to leave by University Police, but soon was allowed to come back on campus as it is considered a public university.

Many students expressed their displeasure to the man and on various sources of social media, calling the man “homophobic” and claiming that his messages were “hateful”.

According to several different sources, Deferrio has been known to go to different colleges and university preaching a similar message.

Whatever his message may have been, he certainly raised a stir on the quad and on the SUNY Campus.

Originally Reported By Chelsey Moore

A Chicago boy accidently shot and killed his 3-year-old brother while playing with his father’s illegal gun on Sunday. The boys were playing a common game known as “cops and robbers” and got ahold of their father’s gun who told officials was given to him illegally by a gang member in Chicago.

The boy was rushed to the hospital but later died.

Police arrested the boys’ father, 25-year-old Michael Santiago, on a felony charge of child endangerment. The gun was reportedly bought off the street, kept on top of the refrigerator wrapped in pajama pants, and was shown to the oldest son. Being a former gang member himself, the father kept the gun for protection after he knowingly snitched on another gang member in a murder trial.

Santiago is represented by the county’s public defender and has bail set at $75,000.

A man was found in criminal condition Sunday morning after he was pinned under a car after an 11-car crash in Syracuse.

Emergency responders rushed to Interstate 81 south around 5:43 a.m after several callers reported the crash just past the Interstate 690 eastbound split.

Sgt. David Sackett, of the Syracuse Police Department says that the first car involved in the crash was taxicab, followed by 10 more cars. One out of the 11 drivers was pinned under a vehicle, suffering a serious head injury.

Written By: Christina Galvin

Syracuse Police are investigating after one person is reported dead and another suffered a leg injury in a shooting near a home on Hope Avenue in Syracuse Wednesday evening.

According to reports, two suspects dumped their car and fled into Oakwood Search resulting in what is being considered an active search and homicide investigation.

Because of the closeness to the school, Syracuse University issued an Orange Alert which warned students of the off-campus investigation and recommended that they stay indoors and not let anybody in.

As of 10:56 PM, the Alert was lifted, but authorities still have not been able to find the suspects, who shot at two police officers in two separate encounters.

No officers have been reported injured at this time.

Last night marked the first of many Democratic Presidential Debates in which Hillary Clinton surprised many with her professional and poised approach.  Along with candidates Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee.

Clinton has been listed as the frontrunner for the Democratic side of the Presidential Race for some time now, but candidate Bernie Sanders’ recent uprising in the polls has given her campaign some fits.

Many were excited and curious to see how Sanders would be in the debate, and he stayed true to himself, being the ultra-progressive, almost revolutionary candidate that many Democratic voters have fallen in love with.

The major piece to take from this debate is the overall sense of unity of the candidates that was not seen in the Republican Debate.  For the most part, all five candidates agreed on the same set of principles including higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter gun regulations.  Where they did differ is on their plans on how to achieve their goals.

Overall, Clinton seemed to show off her confidence as being the frontrunner, whereas Bernie Sanders stuck with his radical approach that may have won him a couple voters.  While we do not know for sure who will emerge from the Democratic Party for President, what we can be sure of is that it will be an election for the ages.

Mighty Taco will be making an appearance again in Central New York.

Last Friday, Mighty Taco announced on Facebook that they will be opening a new location in Cicero, NY. The food chain will be taking the place of an old Tim Horton’s.

Mighty Taco is a Mexican style restaurant that started in the city of Buffalo in 1973 and it has been a fan favorite ever since it started and has spread out to, with the addition of this new location, 24 locations.

Mighty Taco is primarily based around the Buffalo area and western New York, and the new location will now be the farthest east of any of the other Mighty Taco locations. It is also the second time the franchise tried starting up in the Syracuse area.

The last time Mighty Taco was in the Syracuse area was when it had a location in Carousel Center, now known as Destiny USA.

Given the continuous growth, Mighty Taco believes they are now ready to take on the challenge of starting up in Syracuse.

College students that are also volunteer firefighters have the ability to receive tuition reimbursements in New York State. Assemblyman Will Barclay calls this a “relatively new program” offered through the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY).

The National Fire Prevention Association has estimated that roughly one hundred thirty nine billion dollars annually are saved by volunteer firefighters stepping up.

Barclay hopes that this program will encourage more students to become volunteers. The deadline for this semester’s program was recently extended to Oct. 16.

Volunteer firefighters attending college can apply online at http://www.fasny.com/index.php/resources/fasny-help/ or by emailing HELP@fasny.com, Attn: John D’Alessandro, Deputy Volunteer Programs Coordinator. Students can also call FASNY toll free at (855) 367-6933.

One is dead and three are wounded after a confrontation outside of a residence hall causes a student to shoot four people in what has been the second reported “mass” shooting in a month.

18-year-old Steven Jones produced a handgun and shot four students after it is reported that two groups of males took part in a fight outside one of the residence halls.

The Arizona Board of Regents prohibits people from carrying guns around campus, but they are allowed to stow them in their cars.

This incident comes on the same day that President Barack Obama was scheduled to meet with families of the victims of the events at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, a shooting which took place just 8 days ago.

In a statement President Obama made regarding Oregon, he said “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine.”

For many that hear about these two school shootings in 8 days, it is hard to think of it as anything but routine.

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From the Polka to the party the first ever Oswego Oktoberfest brought Deutschland to downtown Oswego.

“This is the first time running the Oktoberfest. So this is something that I think a lot of people have been interested in and we’re just putting it together for a fun community event,” said Event Director Chris Jones.

Jones felt that whether people came for the food or the fun. Everyone found something worth staying for.

Jones said, “Honestly I think it’s a little bit of both. For me the fall season’s the best time to eat and you know, we’ve got about three hundred pre-sales on the event. Hopefully with everything looking the way that it is hopefully about five hundred or so.”

Ice-cold local beer topped everyone’s glass while the polka band played on, but the beer wasn’t the only thing that was cold. With temperatures in the forties most individuals camped out. Enjoying some good times as well as some delicious local beer.

“Most of them are New York State breweries. There are seventeen different beers that are going to be on tap in addition to a couple wines and beverages. So there’s a long list, Adirondack, Woodchuck, Davidson brothers, quite a few on there,” said Jones.

The weather was cold but more than 400 turned out for the night’s events.

Jones felt, “This is fall weather, this is what Oktoberfest is about,” and he hopes to re-create the event again next year. And based on the reception from Oswego resident Trish Auer.

“I think, yeah I’d love to see it come back again and definitely more entertainment,” said Auer.

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Jones added, “I think that bringing more events into the community and encouraging not only the people that live here to come out, but start getting people to come here from other regions.”

And Auer felt, “I just love it there’s just so much more going on here. This year especially and it’s just so exciting to have everybody out and about.”
Although next year’s Oktoberfest is a year away you can visit WTOP10.com and take a look at some photos of this year’s festivities.