• Niagara Falls daredevil walks tight rope -- sans safety net -- across Florida highway

    Aerialist Nik Wallenda, who previously walked across New York's Niagara Falls, takes his high-wire act to Florida, attempting a tightrope walk above downtown Sarasota.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The daredevil who famously tight-roped across Niagara Falls last year risked his life again; this time, walking a wire 180 feet above a Sarasota, Fla., highway on Tuesday.


    But unlike during the highly publicized stunt last summer, Nik Wallenda, 34, didn’t use a safety harness or tether to catch him if he stumbled.

    During his walk, he carried a 42-foot-long balancing pole that weighs 45 pounds. 

    “It is windy, it’s very windy,” Wallenda could be heard saying while performing the walk Tuesday. “It’s uncomfortable, of course, but it’s all about the training. You don’t expect it to be this windy but this high up and the water here, it just makes it that much worse.”

    Although his contract for the live televised Niagara Falls walk last year required him to wear a harness, Sarasota officials gave him a green light for the walk without the safety line.

    “I’m risking my life,” Wallenda said. “Now it’s just a lot of practice and prayer, that’s about it.”

    A Sarasota native, Wallenda said he received warm praise and support for his stunt from other members of his hometown.

    "He is the legacy of the Wallenda family," Sarasota City Commissioner Suzanne Atwell told NBC affiliate WFLA in Tampa, Fla. "We have love for Nik. We have passion for Nik. We have faith in Nik and trust in Nik."

    Tim Boyles / Getty Images

    Nik Wallenda walks across a tightrope 200 feet above U.S. 41 on Jan. 29 in Sarasota, Fla.

    An outspoken critic of using safety nets during high-wire walks, Wallenda comes from a circus family that included his great grandfather, Karl Wallenda, who fell to his death during a performance in Puerto Rico in 1978.

    “I have to give props to my great grandfather because I can almost guarantee you that he would have stopped in the middle of this cable and did a headstand," Wallenda said. "That just shows you what an amazing performer he was.”

    Self-described as "The King of the Wire," Wallenda has set six Guinness World records for various acrobatic stunts, including the record for highest bicycle ride on a high wire -- 260 feet above the ground. He also hung by his teeth from a helicopter 250 feet off the ground, and he said he plans to tight rope across the Grand Canyon. 

    Wallenda’s walk will launch his three-week run as a performer at Circus Sarasota.

  • Cops: Two teens charged after Isabella Tennant, 5, found dead in trash can

    A 16-year-old teen, described as a "family friend," is accused of killing a five-year-old girl left in his care. Police say his friend helped dispose of the body. WGRZ's Claudine Ewing reports from New York.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Two teenagers charged in connection with the death of a five-year-old New York girl whose body was dumped in a trash can were expected to make their first court appearance since their arrests.

    Five-year-old Isabella Tennant was found dead after going missing from her home in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

    Authorities said 16-year-old John Freeman and 18-year-old Tyler Best were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Niagara Falls City Court.  An autopsy of the body of Isabella Tennant was also scheduled.

    The arrests came after Best went to police Monday morning and led them to a garbage can containing a trash bag holding Isabella's body. Best told them he had helped the younger teen dispose of the body after Freeman killed her, police said.

    'Bare hands'
    Isabella's family called police Monday morning to say she was missing from her great-grandmother's Niagara Falls home, where she'd been staying overnight.

    “The great grandmother, Sharon Lascelle, said she went to bed just after 11:00 p.m. and Isabella was playing with" the 16-year-old, according to a press release issued to NBC station WGRZ by the Niagara Falls Police Department.

    “At this time we believe Freeman killed Isabella with his bare hands (no weapons involved) and that Best was only involved after she was deceased and assisted with moving her remains,” it said.

    Freeman "was described by family members of the victim as a ‘close’ and ‘trusted’ family friend. They also said it was also not uncommon for him to be in the home and around Isabella unsupervised. Best and Freeman are described as close friends,” it added.


    Read more news from NBC station WGRZ

    Police charged Freeman as an adult with second-degree murder.  

    Best is charged with tampering with evidence. Best and Freeman were in custody and couldn't be reached for comment. 

    At a news conference Monday afternoon, Niagara Falls Chief Detective William Thompson said there were signs of injuries but no indication of sexual abuse.

    "It's a terrible crime. It tears at your heart," Thompson said.

    Of Best going to police, Thompson said, "I imagine it was his conscience."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Nik Wallenda completes tightrope walk across Niagara Falls

    Mark Blinch / Reuters

    Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walks the high wire from the U.S. side to the Canadian side over the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, June 15, 2012.

    Reuters reports: Nik Wallenda, a member of the famed "Flying Wallendas" family of aerialists, completed a historic tightrope crossing through the mist over Niagara Falls Gorge on Friday, stepping from a two-inch (5 cm) cable onto safe ground in Canada to wild cheers from onlookers.

    Wallenda made the walk from the U.S. side of the falls to the Canadian side, a journey of 1,800 feet (550 meters) over treacherous waters and rocks, in a little more than 25 minutes.

    Geoff Robins / AFP - Getty Images

    Tightrope walker, Nik Wallenda the first walk across Niagara Falls in over a century, braving winds and heavy spray in his historic feat.

  • Man survives plunge over Niagara Falls

    Harry Rossetani / AP

    Niagara Falls emergency officials rescue a man who plunged over the falls in an apparent suicide attempt on May 21, 2012.

    Reuters reports — A man survived a 174-foot plunge over Niagara's Horseshoe Falls on Monday but sustained life-threatening injuries, Canadian police said.

    The man, whose name has not been released, became only the third person known to have lived through a fall over the massive cataract without safety devices.

    Canada's Niagara Parks Police said witnesses reported seeing the man climb over a retaining wall about 20 feet above the brink of the falls at mid-morning and deliberately jump into the swift waters.

    He surfaced a few seconds later in the lower Niagara River Basin below, near an observation platform, police said.

    He "was located by a Niagara Parks Police officer along the rocky shoreline as he collapsed in waters that were up to the subject's waist," police said in a statement. Read the full story.

    Harry Rossetani / AP

    In a rescue that lasted about 30 minutes, staff from several agencies extricated the man, thought to be about 40 years old.
    He was flown by an air ambulance to a hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, for treatment