Woman Gets $3 Million for Toe Mangled by Escalator

Woman Gets $3 Million for Toe Mangled by Escalator

LITTLE ROCK. Ark. (AP) — Jurors have awarded a New York medical student $3 million after she suffered a gruesome toe injury while riding an escalator at an Arkansas mall.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that a Pulaski County jury ruled this week that 27-year-old Aisha Siddiqui should be granted compensation after her foot was crushed at Park Plaza Mall in Little Rock in December 2013.

Siddiqui's attorney told jurors that the aspiring surgeon’s right big toe was ripped off when her foot was pulled into a moving escalator staircase. Siddiqui filed a lawsuit 11 months after the incident.

The mall and escalator manufacturer Kone Inc. acknowledged fault for Siddiqui’s injury ahead of the trial. The companies’ attorneys suggested $500,000 would be “fair and reasonable” compensation.

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Six Arrested in FBI Raid

BLYTHEVILLE – FBI agents arrested six people Friday morning on drug charges at a number of locations in Blythe ville, an attorney with U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed. One of the raids happened at a home on the 700 block of Logan Lane, where 17-year-old Julius Thompson said agents woke his family up around 6 a.m. “They threw flash bombs to wake everybody up and whenever they woke us up they told us to exit the house,” Thompson said. Thompson said he and four other people at the home spent the next 30 or 40 minutes outside in handcuffs while federal agents searched the house. ***

Arrest Made in Saline County Pipe Bomb Incident

HASKELL — A Bauxite man has been identified as the individual a local sheriff’s deputy encountered Thursday morning that led to the discovery of an improvised explosive device in a backpack. The Saline County Sheriff’s Office says Joshua Michael Thacker, 30, was found to have a pipe bomb in his backpack when a deputy tried to give him a ride after finding him walking in the cold along Hwy. 229 near the Hwy. 67 intersection. Thacker, who first gave the deputy a false last name, has been charged with Criminal Acts Involving Explosives, Interruption of a Vital Public Facility, and Obstruction of Governmental Operations Thacker was scheduled to appear in court for a bond hearing Monday morning. The SCSO says its detectives do not believe there are any additional explosive devices not yet found in this case but add that the criminal investigation continues. The incident led authorities to shutdown Hwy. 229 and State Hwy. 67, along with numerous businesses in the area, including a health department office and school.