Whale Tries To Eat Diver Off Cape Cod, Diver Survives: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, June 11. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Braintree police Officer William Cushing Jr. was released from the hospital Friday morning, after being shot last week while responding to a domestic violence call.
• Producers will be in North Andover next week to film scenes for an episode of a Sundance, true-crime documentary series that will look at the 2018 murder of Wendi Davidson.
• An apartment complex for elderly and disabled Medford residents went without air conditioning during this week's heat wave.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

A commercial lobster diver suffered serious injuries Friday when he got trapped in a humpback whale's mouth off the coast of Cape Cod.

Michael Packard was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis with at least one broken leg after the encounter off Provincetown. He was in the whale's mouth for about 20 seconds and, inititially, thought the whale was a great white shark.

According to the Center for Coastal Studies, dangerous human-whale encounters are rare. Humpback whale are not aggressive, and scientists with the center said the encounter was likely accidental while the whale was feeding.

Read the full story.

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Braintree police officer leaves hospital: Braintree police Officer William Cushing Jr. was released from the hospital Friday morning, after being shot last week while responding to a domestic violence call. Police organized a procession to bring Cushing home to Braintree police officer Matthew Donaghue, who was also shot during the incident, was released from the hospital on Saturday.

Documentary crew looking at MA murder: Producers will be in North Andover next week to film scenes for an episode of a Sundance, true-crime documentary series that will look at the 2018 murder of Wendi Davidson. Davidson's ex-fiance, Brian Chevalier, 54, pleaded guilty to murder in December and was sentenced to life in prison. After Davidson was found strangled to death on April 21, 2018, Chevalier went on the run. He was eventually arrested in Mexico and turned over to law enforcement officials in California.

Dedham teen dies week after being pulled from pool: After nearly a week in the hospital, 17-year-old Alonzo Polk has died. The Dedham teen was pulled from a pool during a graduation party last week. The Norfolk County District Attorney's office is reviewing the circumstances around Polk's death. Charges may fall out including, furnishing alcohol to persons under 21 and reckless endangerment to a child, according to police.

Student says "thanks, but no thanks" to scholarship: A Fitchburg High School graduate bound for Harvard floored her classmates, family and faculty last Friday night by turning down her $40,000 scholarship and asking that it be given to someone else instead. Verda Tetteh says she turned down the scholarship after her school's assistant principal spoke of being selfless and helpful to others in need. When she went to accept her General Excellence Award, she says she felt that she was not the one who needed the money the most.

Eat fresh: Patch's 2021 Massachusetts Farmers Market Guide

Picture This

Hero cop laid to rest: Thousands of people, including police from across Massachusetts, lined the streets of downtown Worcester Thursday to say goodbye to Officer Enmanuel "Manny" Familia, who drowned during a water rescue last week. Familia, 38, died on Friday when he attempted to rescue Troy Love, 14, as the boy was drowning in the pond at Green Hill Park in Worcester. (Photo: Neal McNamara/Patch)

They Said It

"This is completely unacceptable, and I've been on the phone everyday trying to get building management to turn on the AC before someone gets sick or worse."

• Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, following a report an apartment complex for elderly and disabled Medford residents went without air conditioning during this week's heat wave.

In Case You Missed It

Teacher on leave after breaking up fight: A Barnstable High School teacher who "inappropriately physically intervened" while breaking up a fight between students has been placed on leave. Superintendent of Schools Kristen Harmon said the incident happened around 8:15 a.m. Thursday. Cell phone video of the incident was shared on social media.

Pops July 4th concert moving west: The city's famed Fourth of July fireworks display is back on — just not in the manner you're accustomed to. Organizers announced Friday the fireworks will be at Boston Common, while the Boston Pops will perform that night in Tanglewood, a music venue in the Berkshires.

By The Numbers

20: The number of Massachusetts communities that had reached "herd immunity" against COVID-19 as of Thursday. The milestone is reached when 70 percent or more of a town's population is fully vaccinated.

MA Restaurant Worker Shortage 'Could Last Months' | Eat Mass

Food and eating got weird during the coronavirus pandemic. Eat Mass is a new, weekly feature from Patch trying to make sense of post-COVID food news in Massachusetts.

The Federal Reserve warned this week that a labor shortage in the food and restaurant industry could last for several months, and that some restaurants have been raising prices in response. That warning came on the heels of a report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, which said the labor shortage in restaurants was holding back the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

"The worker shortage is real — and it's getting worse by the day," Suzanne Clark, the president and CEO of the Chamber, said in a statement. "The worker shortage is a national economic emergency, and it poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and America's great resurgence."

In Massachusetts, restaurant owners were caught off guard when Gov. Charlie Baker dropped all pandemic restrictions on May 29. Restaurants had been eyeing the originally-announced Aug. 1 date for a return to full operations, leaving them scrambling to refill the 87,000 restaurant jobs that were lost between March 2020 and March 2021.

Read this story and more, recent, Massachusetts food news. Have a food news tip, question or suggestion? Email dave.copeland@patch.com. Want to make sure you don't miss each week's roundup? Sign up for our newsletter and get it delivered every weekend. It's free!