A Niagara County police dispatcher got a DWI in the sheriff's office parking lot on Thursday night.Police said 61-year-old Brenda Higgins, who has been a dispatcher with the sheriff's office since 2012, hit a parked car in the parking lot of the sheriff's office, located on Niagara Street in Lockport. She was off duty at the time of the crash. Higgins has been suspended pending a department investigation.French Road between Brentwood Drive and Borden Road is expected to remain closed into the overnight hours as crews continue work at the scene of what was a three-alarm fire that broke out inside a large commercial building on Saturday afternoon.The department received multiple calls for a fire at 960 French Road shortly after 3:15 p.m. Members of the South Line Volunteer Fire Company determined that the building was fully engulfed, and multiple fire companies responded to assist. The business was determined to have been closed at the time of the fire; no injuries have been reported at this time.A 36-year-old Niagara Falls man has been sentenced to 198 months in federal prison after being convicted of distributing fentanyl that caused a fatal overdose in Tonawanda in April 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York. Michael Paonessa, 36, of Niagara Falls, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to 16 years and six months in prison for possession with intent to distribute and distribution of fentanyl.A Hamburg man was sentenced to a year and a half in jail for trying to rape a 15-year-old in 2025, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday. Naphtali Masse, 39, tried to rape the teen on Dec. 30, 2025 in Hamburg. Masse was known to the victim. He was arrested in January and in June pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree attempted rape.