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Briefly

Man awarded medal for actions

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A central Illinois man has received the Carnegie Medal for thwarting an attack by a knife-wielding man at a chess club session for children.

James Vernon was awarded the medal on Monday by Rep. Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican. The honor is given to someone from the U.S. or Canada who risks their life while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.

The Army veteran was 75 when he fought off the 19-year-old man trying to attack people at Morton Public Library in 2015. He deflected the attacker’s attention away from the children and blocked him to allow everyone to escape.

Vernon suffered cuts to two arteries and a tendon but returned to the chess club a week later to instruct. He is credited with saving the lives of 16 children and their parents who were at the event.

The attacker, Dustin Brown, was arrested and later sentenced to prison.

Woman who gave injections dies

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi inmate convicted of giving fatal and illicit silicone buttocks injections to a woman has died at age 58.

An autopsy is to be conducted on the remains of inmate Tracy Lynn Garner, after she died Sunday, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a statement Monday announcing the death. Garner had served less than 3 1/2 years of a life sentence.

Garner was convicted by a jury in 2014 of depraved heart murder in the death of Karima Gordon, a metro Atlanta resident who died eight days after receiving the injections in Jackson in 2012.

Depraved heart murder is a killing caused by reckless disregard for human life.

Prosecutors said the Georgia woman was referred to Garner by Natasha Stewart, an adult entertainer known as Pebbelz Da Model. Stewart was convicted of manslaughter in Garner’s death and received a seven-year sentence.

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