KUAM-TV

Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, was held on $2 million bail on multiple murder and assault charges in the attack Tuesday, Feb. 12.

Two Japanese women were killed and 12 other people were injured when a man drove his car into a crowd in the center of Guam's tourist district and then began stabbing people at random, police said.

Court documents allege that Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, of Tamuning told police that he was intent on "hurting as many people with his vehicle initially and subsequently with his knife" in the attack late Tuesday in Tumong Bay — a major tourist attraction on the west coast of the Pacific island, which is a U.S. territory.

Desoto was held on $2 million bail Wednesday after a hearing on two counts of aggravated murder and nine other felony charges. 

All of the 14 victims but one were believed to be Japanese tourists, NBC station KUAM reported. The other was a young woman who was a high school classmate of Desoto's, police said.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry identified the dead as Rie Sugiyama, 29, and Kazuko Uehara, 81, who were stabbed. Other stabbing victims included an 8-month-old Japanese boy. 

Court documents allege that Desoto plowed through the crowd onto a sidewalk before he crashed into a store in the same complex as the famous beachside Outrigger Guam Resort. He then got out and began stabbing people randomly, authorities said in the documents.

Witnesses described a surreal scene like something in an action movie.

A.J. Smith, a Tamuning ophthalmologist, told The Pacific Daily News that about 30 seconds after the car crashed into the store, the driver jumped out with two or three knives and attacked the crowd.

"Everybody that was in the immediate area froze. Those of us farther back, we ran," Smith said. "We were so freaked out."

Kevin Quinata, who had just reported for work at the resort hotel, told KUAM: "There was blood already all over the people, so I ran and got some towels and ran back out. By the time I came back out, they had already subdued him, and it was ugly."

Guam Memorial Hospital cleared its emergency room for the influx of patients and put out a call for supplies Tuesday night, Joseph Verga, the hospital's chief executive, told KUAM. Japanese translators were brought in to help doctors communicate with the patients.

The Guam Visitors Bureau called an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the potential impact to Guam's tourist industry, which generates $1.35 billion a year, making it the island's largest source of non-government revenue, according to the latest figures from the Guam Economic Development Authority.

"It's particularly hard-hitting because Guam is actually well-known as perhaps the safest destination in the entire region," Mark Baldyga, chairman of the visitors bureau, told reporters Wednesday.

Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo also sought to allay safety concerns, telling reporters that he had been in communication with the Japanese consulate and issuing a statement that said, "Guam values its long-term relationship with the Japanese people and we promise you that we are committed to ensuring the safety of all visitors."

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

Andy Newman / Getty Images North America

Charles Bicht is congratulated by previous winners of the annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West, Fla., on July 24, 2010.

A Florida attorney representing a man accused in a murder-for-hire plot filed for a trial suspension for an unusual reason: He wanted a day off to participate in an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest.

Frank Louderback, of St. Petersburg, asked U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday to suspend the trial on Friday, July 20, so he could drive to Key West to participate in the annual competition, The Miami Herald reported.

Louderback represents Jerry Bottorff, who's accused of conspiracy to commit murder for hire in the 2007 killing of 37-year-old Thomas Lee Sehorne. 

The Herald reported that Bottorff and his wife, Christie, who is the victim's widow, and alleged gunman Luis Lopez will stand tria starting July 9. 

Louderback's plan was to be in Key West on July 21 for the crowning of the winner who most resembled the influential American author who penned "For Whom The Bell Tolls," "The Old Man and the Sea," and other works of fiction.  

He has already paid non-refundable deposits for hotel rooms for friends and family members, according to the Herald.

Judges have been known not to hold court on Fridays during lengthy trials, the Tampa Bay Times reported. But Judge Merryday wasn't persuaded by Louderback's request.

Louderback told msnbc.com that he thought his motion had a chance of being granted.

"Instead he came with his literary gem," Louderback said. 

Merryday wrote: "Between a murder-for-hire trial and an annual look-alike contest, surely Hemingway, a perfervid admirer of grace under pressure, would choose the trial." 

He quoted poet Dorothy Parker, who once wrote that Hemingway "works like hell and through it."

After quoting from "The Sun Also Rises," Merryday made his decision: "Best of luck to counsel in next year’s contest. The motion is denied."

In response, Louderback told The Times, "It'll give me another year to get older, fatter and grayer."

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

The Times reported that Louderback has already competed in the contest three times, which is part of Key West's annual Hemingway Days festival. The festival pays homage to the Nobel Prize winner, who lived and wrote in Key West during the 1930s.

Last year, more than 120 competitors participated in the contest.

Louderback told msnbc.com he was "disappointed" by Merryday's ruling but will still keep his place in the contest in case he can make it. 

His son is a pilot and had offered to fly Louderback to Key West in case he gets out of court early.

"I'll ask them (contest officials) to put me in the back somewhere even though it's done alphabetically," Louderback said. "That may buy me an hour or so."

A call to Merryday's office was not immediately returned.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• LA police: 'Teardrop Rapist,' wanted since 1996, may have struck again
• Alleged Fort Bragg shooter faced court martial, discharge, officials say
• George Zimmerman back in court, seeking bail for a second time
• Report: US student fighting for life after chimps attack
• Video: Zoo chimps separated after mauling of baby primate
• You're probably losing $155K from your 401(k) plan

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

By Jack Chesnutt
NBC News

FORT COLLINS, Colo. --  After two weeks of around-the-clock work, firefighters are starting to gain the upper hand on the High Park fire near Fort Collins, Colo. But even as some of the residents are allowed to return to their homes, there is another casualty from the 100-square-mile blaze: Northern Colorado’s annual influx of summer visitors seeking clean air and whitewater rivers.

Jim Clark, executive director of the Ft. Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau, can see a smoky haze over the Roosevelt National Forest from his location downtown.

“The bad news is...we’re known for our outdoor recreation," he said. "A lot of that at the present time is closed.”

Clark’s office is handling many out-of-state calls from people who have questions about the smoke from the fire.  For the past several weeks the Colorado Department of Public Health has issued air quality health alerts because of the dense smoke along a 200-mile corridor from Colorado Springs in the south up to the Wyoming border. This week, the smoke has been less of an issue.

“We have lots of things for them in town -- breweries, shops ... everything is still open," Clark said. "But, there are some folks who would have visited us that probably will stay away.”

Over the weekend, new flames near Colorado Springs forced thousands to evacuate -- one of several fires emptying campgrounds and hotels across the parched state. 

Preston Harrington and Darrel Sellers, of Lake Charles, La., had planned to climb nearby Pikes Peak. Then they got evacuated from their hotel. 

"We're used to the hurricanes and evacuating and what not. And we come up here and expect good weather and since we've been here they've had hailstorms, and now forest fires -- it just reminds us of being back home," Harrington said. 

Bill Fee, shopkeeper at the Nature of Things Chainsaw Art in Manitou Springs, Colo., said it's devastating for local businesses, especially the weekend before the Fourth of July when they tend to have the most customers. 

"I do worry for Colorado this year for tourism through the whole entire state -- not just the small town of Manitou, which relies completely on tourism -- it affects [businesses] across the board."

Clark says it will be weeks or even months before any hard numbers are available to calculate the loss of visitors due to the fire.

Rafting companies offer refunds

The losses have already started for Pat Legel, owner of Wanderlust Adventure Rafting in Bellevue, Colo. Legel has spent what should have been a busy start to the rafting season dusting off his rafts and life jackets. “This is historical. This is the longest we’ve been out of business.”

Legel’s company offers trips down the Cache la Poudre River, one of the most popular whitewater rivers in Colorado. The fire has cut off access to the river where it runs through the burn zone. Wanderlust is one of six local outfitters which have suspended rafting on the Poudre since June 9.

Legel said his heart goes out to the more than 200 residents who have lost their homes to the fire.  But, for his business, the hardest part is making the daily calls to customers to let them know the river canyon is closed and to arrange refunds on their rafting fees.

“It’ll be a survival season, if we can get back some time early July. If not, we’ll have to maybe lay some people off and get a loan to carry us through next year.”

Legel started the company in 1982. He’s now 65.

"I don’t think I will see the landscape along the river recover in my lifetime,” he said. 

Tourists changing plans

Jane Servi had house guests for the weekend at her Larimer County home and had to scramble to make new plans for weekend activities.  She was looking forward to showing the visitors from Boston a Colorado whitewater adventure. But her Poudre River rafting trip was one of hundreds cancelled by the fire. Eventually she found an alternative rafting location nearly 70 miles away. It was disappointing, she said, but she's more concerned "about the people who are up there whose houses have been destroyed, and people who have been displaced."

Last week "NBC Nightly News" found Grant Houx, owner of St. Peter’s Fly shop in Fort Collins, standing thigh-deep in the Poudre River about 10 miles downstream from the fire. He was whipping a seven-foot-long fly rod through air that tastes like smoke. The water runs clear and cool here, for now. But when late summer rains come, the soot, ash and charred underbrush from 70,000 scorched acres will wash down the Poudre and smaller streams like a black tide.  Not good for trout and other native fish.

“'Concern’ is one word. We don’t know exactly what the effects of that soot will be,” he said. 

Houx’s fishing guide service has had “a few” fire-related cancellations. He explains that fishing is still good on several other rivers in the area unaffected by the fire.

Fires of 2012 follow record year for Colorado tourism 

According to the Colorado Tourism Office, 59.7 million visitors came to the state in 2011. They spent $10.7 billion. Larimer County, where the High Park Fire continues to burn, represents 2.7 percent of statewide visitor spending.

Colorado Tourism Office chief Al White says statewide reservations are up “double-digits over last summer” but acknowledges the impact of the fires in northern Colorado and Fort Collins. The hope is that tourists understand that even a 100 square mile fire represents less than one tenth of one percent of the state of Colorado.

“The High Park fire is a tragedy, but there is still a lot to see and do in Colorado," White said. "And for now, people are still making plans to come here.”

NBC's Vicky Collins contributed to this report.

The grisly Miami crime scene where police fatally shot a naked man chewing the face off his victim will soon be a tourist stop.

The Miami “Mystery & Mayhem: Crime Tour” tour given by Miami-Dade College professor Paul George, as part of HistoryMiami tours, will stop on the MacArthur Causeway, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

“Horrible as it was, it is part of our history,” George told the Business Journal. “Currently, our tour takes us over the causeway right past the site, so this fits well.”

George, a history professor at Miami Dade College, runs history tours that also include Al Capone's home and the cemetery where Julia Tuttle, a city founder whose name is on a causeway famed for sheltering homeless sex offenders, is buried, HistoryMiami says. The group did not say when the next crime tour will be.

NBCMiami.com: Gloria Allred to represent man-eater's girlfriend

Miami attracts around 12.6 million overnight visitors a year, according to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Miami-Dade Police Dept. / AP

Rudy Eugene, 31, was shot by Miami-Dade Police after he refused to stop eating another man's face in Miami on May 26.

In Milwaukee, a tour highlighting the haunts of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer sparked an uproar after Groupon offered discounted tickets to see where he stalked his victims, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. The chocolate factory worker was arrested in 1991 and beaten to death in prison in 1994.

CDC: No, zombie apocalypse isn't coming

Despite protests by vicitms’ families, the Dahmer tours go on every Saturday, Amanda Morden of operator BAM Marketing and Media told msnbc.com.

“Interest in the tours has come from both national and international tourists as well as professors of history and psychology from universities across the United States,” Morden said.

Among other famed crime tours are the Jack the Ripper Tour in London, The Real Black Dahlia in Los Angeles, the Torso Murder Tour in Cleveland and the self-directed Gangster Walking Tour in St. Paul, Minn., along with mob tours in New York, Las Vegas and Sicily.

Related: After gory incidents, online 'zombie' talk grows

In Miami, an attacker identified as 31-year-old Rudy Eugene walked naked on the sidewalk near the causeway’s Biscayne Boulevard exit May 26 before he encountered his victim, Ronald Poppo, 65. Eugene appears in videos to struggle with Poppo, throwing him on the sidewalk as cars and bicyclists speed past and a Metromover public transit car passes by overhead. About 16 minutes into the attack, an officer appears and fires at Eugene, who police said first growled at the officer before continuing to chew Poppo’s face.

Poppo is reported to be in critical condition in a hospital.

Follow msnbc.com's Jim Gold on Facebook here. 

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• US appeals court won't revisit California's Prop 8
• Routine traffic stop reveals toddler holding a handgun, Chicago police say
• Jurors chosen in trial of ex-Penn State assistant coach Sandusky
• Video: Prodigy earns MD at age 21
• California faces threat at sea from drug smugglers

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office

Mark Bellinger, 52, former tourism official in Okaloosa county, Florida, left a suicide note and disappeared on Thursday after allegations surfaced about misuse of tax funds and money from BP to the county after the 2010 oil spill.

Florida authorities have issued an arrest warrant and initiated a nationwide search for a county tourism official who threatened suicide and disappeared after he was alleged to have used public funds to buy a 44-foot yacht and a home with combined value of more than $1.4 million, according to a report on nwfdailynews.com.

Follow @msnbc_us

Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.

A warrant obtained late Thursday by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Northwest Florida Mortgage Fraud Task Force calls for the arrest of Mark Bellinger, 52, the county’s tourist development council director, the report said.

Bellinger took on post in the immediate aftermath of the BP oil spill, and the nwfdailynews.com report said he was often praised for helping bolstering the industry in spite of the environmental disaster.

The warrant is related to allegations that Bellinger used money that came to the council from BP after the 2010 oil spill to buy a $747,000 home in Destin, Florida, the report said.  

Bellinger reportedly left a suicide note and then disappeared Thursday, two days after resigning from his position under pressure for using money from a bed tax — earmarked for advertising — to buy a $710,000 yacht, an earlier report on nwfdailynews.com said.

The county launched a probe into that purchase that it described in a press release as "unorthodox" and "secretive."

In questioning by county commissioners earlier in the week, Bellinger said the yacht, a 44-foot, 2011 Marquis 420 SC, was used to promote tourism.

"Our first priority remains his personal safety, but we are conducting a criminal investigation," county Undersheriff Don Adams said Friday, speaking to nwfdailynews.com about the search and arrest warrant.

Bellinger's car, a 2011 four-door silver Subaru Legacy with Florida license tag 262 NFS, is missing, the Sheriff's Office said. His name and photograph would be circulated nationwide, Adams said.

"If he has an encounter with law enforcement … they’ll know he’s wanted," Adams told nwfdailynews.com.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Student's ordeal: How could DEA lose Daniel Chong?
• Prostitute in Secret Service scandal speaks out
• Bear whose 'falling' photo went viral is killed by cars
• Video: Elephant plays harmonica at National Zoo
• Two dead, one critical in Md. church shooting
• UVA lacrosse killing: Victim's mom sues coaches, state

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook