NEU » police said there was a loaded gun

PARKER, Colo. -- Even with six rookies on her team, captain Liselotte Neumann told the Europeans this was their time to make history in the Solheim Cup. All she wanted was for them to prove they could win in America. They gave her so much more. Caroline Hedwall became the first player in Solheim Cup history to win five matches, and the final point was for more than the 24-year-old Swede. She stuck her approach on the 435-yard 18th hole into 4 feet for a birdie that gave her a 1-up win over Michelle Wie and assured Europe of keeping the cup. "Im still shaking," Hedwall said. "Its just amazing." Moments later, Catriona Matthew holed a 5-foot par putt to halve her match and give Europe the outright win on the seventh try in America. And it only got better. Even as the celebration played out across Colorado Golf Club, tears rushing over the European stickers on their cheeks, Neumanns crew kept battling for half-points until the very end. The Solheim Cup ended when Cristie Kerr and Karine Icher reached the 18th green -- the scene of this great outdoor party -- and conceding each other birdies to get on with the celebration. That final half-point put Europe in the record books again -- 18-10, the biggest blowout since this competition began in 1990. "It was really fun to see Caroline get her fifth point this week, making some history on the team," Neumann said. "Winning here for the first time, making more history. ... Im sure well go have a drink or two and do some dancing and singing tonight." The Americans have an 8-5 lead in the series, though this is the first time they have lost back-to-back in the Solheim Cup. The Americans are without the Solheim Cup, the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup, the four biggest team events between both sides of the Atlantic. U.S. captain Meg Mallon, gracious to the end, could only point to a poor performances on the slick greens -- and her teams inability to close. Over the final three-hole stretch, Europe had a 17-10 advantage in holes won. "The way we played 16, 17 and 18 I think is what really made the difference," Mallon said. "It wasnt for lack of preparation because we played this golf course quite a bit. So it wasnt like a surprise for us. It was just a matter of who dropped the putts on those holes. And unfortunately, it was the Europeans." And she didnt get much help from her best players. Stacy Lewis, the highest-ranked American coming off a Womens British Open title at St. Andrews, went 1-2-1 for the week. Paula Creamer was 1-3 and was blown out by a 17-year-old Charley Hull in Sunday singles. Angela Stanford was the other player without a point this week, going 0-4. Cristie Kerr, the most experienced American on the team, went 1-2-1. Europes rookies were 12-5-2, with Hull stealing the show. The English teenager showed no fear, at one point asking Neumann, "When am I supposed to be nervous?" "I didnt really feel that nervous, to be honest," Hull said. "Because this is how I always look at golf -- Im not going to die if I miss it. Just hit it, and find it, and hit it again." It really was that simple. "Its a fantastic feeling right now," Neumann said. "Im so proud of them. They played such good golf this week. They just played tremendous golf." Hull, the youngest player in Solheim Cup history, capped off her amazing week by demolishing Creamer in a match that set the tone for Europe. Another rookie, Carlota Ciganda, handed Morgan Pressel her first lost in singles in four appearances to go 3-0 for the week. Not even a one-hour delay due to lightning in the area could damper this European celebration. Suzann Pettersen was lining up her putt on the 16th hole when she heard the cheers from the 18th, got the news that Hedwall won her match and began pumping her fist. Matthew holed the winning the putt, but the Europeans really won Saturday afternoon when they swept the fourballs matches to build a 10 1/2-5 1/2 lead, matching the largest margin going into Sunday. Raucous cheering on the first tee raised American hopes of the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history. Once they got on the golf course, it was a hopeless cause. Mallon stacked some of her best players at the top of the lineup with hopes of filling the leaderboard with red scores and building momentum. Europe was ahead early four of the opening five matches. Brittany Lang delivered a point, though she had a tussle with Azahara Munoz until winning on the 17th. Lewis, in the opening match, didnt take her first lead against Anna Nordqvist until driving the green on the par-4 14th for a birdie. But the closing stretch belonged to Europe, as it had all week. Lewis missed an 8-foot birdie on the 16th for a chance to go 2 up, and the Swede found more magic on the 17th. One day after her hole-in-one, she holed a 20-foot birdie putt to square the match, and Lewis had to make a 7-foot par to get a half-point. Ciganda, the Spanish rookie who couldnt break 80 in her opening fourballs match, finished with five straight birdies to pull away from Pressel. Europes biggest boost came from its youngest star. Hull, playing as if she had been here many times before, dropped in a 45-foot birdie putt on No. 6 to take her first lead, and she demoralized Creamer from there, 5 and 4. Creamer has not made it beyond the 14th hole in singles losses the last two Solheim Cups. Hull only showed her age at the end. She took a marker from her bag and asked Creamer if she could sign a golf ball for a friend back home. "Hes a big fan, so I thought I might as well get one," Hull said. By the end of the week, the Americans had reasons to ask for the autographs. Cheap Adidas Shoes Online . 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Uniteds eighth defeat of a wretched campaign means Liverpool, which currently occupies the fourth and final Champions League place, could go nine points clear of its fierce rival by beating West Bromwich Albion on Sunday. Charlie Adam scored both of Stokes goals at Britannia Stadium either side of Robin van Persies equalizer, with a miserable day for seventh-place United capped by first-half injuries to centre halves Jonny Evans and Phil Jones that forced them off. NEW ORLEANS -- One car rear-ends another on a Saturday night. People argue. It escalates.Ten or so gunshots later, one driver is dead and the other waits nervously to give his side of the story to police.Conflicts settled by gunfire are tragically common in New Orleans, but there was nothing routine about this one: The dead man was retired football player Will Smith, a star on the 2006 Saints team who helped lift the stricken citys spirits with a winning season after Hurricane Katrina, and played with the team when it won the franchises only Super Bowl three seasons later.The accused is a 29-year-old former semiprofessional football player named Cardell Hayes. The owner of a tow-truck company and the father of a 5-year-old son, Hayes is described by friends as soft-spoken and even-tempered -- hardly the type to erupt into a lethal road rage. His attorney has been laying the groundwork for a self-defense argument ahead of a trial that opens Monday, but Smiths local popularity and national renown could prove to be obstacles.Will Smith obviously was a beloved member of the New Orleans community, Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said in a recent interview. And thats going to make the defense of this case all the more difficult.Smiths shooting death is strangely similar to that of Joe McKnight, another former NFL player who was shot and killed just last Thursday in a New Orleans suburb after a road rage incident on a bridge spiraled out of control. The man authorities identified as the shooter in that case -- Ronald Gasser -- has been released from custody with no charges as the investigation continues.Hayes has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Smiths death. Conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. He is also charged with attempted second-degree murder in the wounding of Smiths wife, who was shot in the legs. He has been jailed since the April shooting, unable to make the $1.75 million bond.Snippets of surveillance video from near the scene, police statements, and testimony from pre-trial hearings paint a picture of what happened on April 9:Smith, his wife and two friends left a restaurant in New Orleans Lower Garden District and were heading downtown on Magazine Street. At one point Smiths SUV appeared to bump the rear of a Hummer that had come to a stop on the street.Rather than stop, Smith swerved his SUV around the Hummer and continued downtown. Moments later, the Hummer hit Smiths SUV from behind, shatteering the rear window and pushing it into the rear of another car -- in which more friends of Smith were riding.ddddddddddddWho the aggressors were in the ensuing conflict will be at issue in the trial. Hayes acknowledged to at least one police officer that he was armed when he got out of his vehicle. He said he was accosted by an unarmed Smith and others, and that Smith struck him, although police said there were no obvious signs of injury.The first officer to approach the scene after the crash was an off-duty rookie who had been at a nearby bar. Christopher McGaw has testified that he approached the scene as the argument grew more heated, ducked for cover when gunshots rang out, then approached again, finding Smith slumped across the front seat of his car, one hand extended toward the glove box.What was I supposed to do? Hayes is heard asking McGaw, on a recording of a 911 call McGaw had placed at the scene.Why Smith drove away from the scene of the first, apparently minor accident; whether Hayes intentionally rammed Smiths vehicle moments later; whether Smith was reaching for a gun when he was shot to death -- all are issues that will likely be addressed at trial.On the side of the defense is a toxicology report showing that Smith was legally drunk at the time of his death. Other factors Ciolino cited: The fact that Will Smith was, by some reports, so loud and belligerent; the fact that the forensic evidence arguably could support that Will Smith was reaching for a gun.Smith had returned to his SUV when he was shot and police said there was a loaded gun in the vehicle. That might help the defense argument that Hayes shot in self-defense, Ciolino said. But its an argument that could be blunted by the fact that Smith was shot eight times -- seven in the back, one in the side -- Ciolino added.Prosecutors also have made much of the fact that Hayess Hummer had hit Smiths SUV from behind so hard that the rear window shattered.Another odd twist in the case: A friend of Smiths who wound up at the scene the night of the shooting is William Ceravolo, a retired New Orleans police officer who had dined with the Smiths before the accident.Ceravolo was among six officers sued by Hayes after police killed his father, Anthony Hayes, in December 2005. Police settled the lawsuit in 2011, and the terms were confidential. ' ' '