Man dies of gunshot; slaying is probed

Police responding to a 911 call Friday found an injured 34-year-old Florida resident who later died. Rocky Valeur, who had been living with relatives, was found on the floor of his cousin's home on Everett Street with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Middlesex district attorney's office. Valeur was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and pronounced dead minutes later. According to the district attorney's spokesman, Corey Welford, the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. It was Medford's second slaying this year.

BOSTON

The State Police closed off a portion of Soldiers Field Road early yesterday morning after a water main broke and flooded the roadway. Icy conditions had caused a car to skid off the road and crash just after midnight, according to State Police spokesman Lieutenant Eric Anderson. No one was injured in the accident, he said. Police shut down the road, diverting all inbound traffic from North Harvard Street, while work crews from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission repaired the broken water main. Anderson said another leak was discovered later in the day, which kept the road closed. As of 10:30 last night, work crews were trying to fix that leak, he said.

MONTPELIER

After an extended period of bitter cold, state officials are warning there could be a recurrence of 15 years ago, when an ice jam in the Winooski River caused catastrophic flooding in Vermont's capital. Engineers say it's the first time since records have been kept that the river has been so packed with ice in a "freeze up jam," said Barry Cahoon, state rivers program manager for the Department of Environmental Conservation. In the previous flood, personal watercraft cruised down Main Street, people in canoes and rowboats floated past the State House, and rescuers used backhoes to move people to safety from the floodwaters. (AP)

BENNINGTON, Vt.

All 135 workers at a state office building have been moved into temporary office space over suspicions that the building is making some of them ill. "We're completely out of the state office building," building representative Charles Gingo said Friday. The announcement beat by more than a month the deadline set by Governor Jim Douglas on Feb. 1 for everyone to be out by the end of March. The Vermont State Employees Association began raising a public alarm last spring after six cases of a rare, non contagious disease, called sarcoidosis, was detected among current and former state workers in the building. (AP)

LITCHFIELD, N.H.

Two police officers admitted vandalizing the Litchfield Fire Department last weekend and have been suspended, the attorney general's office said. Fire Chief Tom Scofield said food and drinks had been thrown on the floor and carpet, insulting messages were written on a whiteboard, and an insulting derogatory note about Scofield was taped to a cookie jar. The two officers admitted they did the damage while they were on duty. The prosecutor decided against filing criminal charges, Scofield said. (AP)

HENNIKER, N.H.

Authorities say the solid ice of the Contoocook River saved two New England College students from tragedy last week. Police say Vanessa Martin of Maine probably was driving too fast Thursday night when her car hit a snow bank and crashed down an embankment and onto the river. The car landed nearly 60 feet from the shore but the car did not break through the ice. Authorities say it was fortunate that Martin had a cellphone to call for help because the crash site was not visible from the road. Firefighters had to rappel to the car and use ladders to bring Martin and her passenger to safety. The passenger, Amy Deck of Massachusetts, was taken to Concord Hospital. (AP)

PROVIDENCE

Brown University will raise $10 million for an endowment to help public schools in Providence and begin development of a slavery memorial, the school announced yesterday in response to a report that examined its centuries-old ties to the slave trade. The university will also create an academic center focused on slavery and justice, strengthen its African Studies Department, and revise its official history to provide a more accurate account of the school's early years. The plan was endorsed by Brown's governing body and developed out of recommendations issued last fall by a committee of staff members and students that was formed in 2003 by the college's president, Ruth J. Simmons. (AP)

(Correction: Because of incorrect information provided to the Globe by the office of the Middlesex district attorney, the wrong hospital was named in an item about a fatal shooting in Medford in New England in Brief in Sunday's City & Region section. The victim was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford.)