Posted: May 6, 2020 / 02:27 AM CDT
/ Updated: May 6, 2020 / 02:27 AM CDT

Virginia (NBC) (05/06/20)— Minor league baseball player Blake Bivens said he found out through Facebook that his wife, their 14-month-old son, and his mother-in-law had been killed.

Bivens, who pitched last season for the Montgomery, Alabama, Biscuits, a Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, opened up about the deaths in August while speaking with a pastor from The River Church in Danville, Virginia.

Matthew Bernard, his brother-in-law, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Bernard is accused of killing his mother, Joan Bernard, age 62; his sister Emily Bernard Bivens, age 25; and her child, Cullen Bivens, 14 months.

Bivens said he was with his teammates in Chattanooga, Tennessee, finishing up a series of games when he woke up and checked his phone but didn’t have any messages from his family. He logged on to Facebook and immediately saw a headline about a search for Bernard.

“I knew then there’s something going on so immediately called my parents,” Bivens said during a conversation that aired Sunday on Facebook Live. “They were trying to figure out everything that was going on also. I knew I needed to get my stuff together. I needed to probably get an airplane trip home, not knowing the extent of anything going on.”

The Rays arranged a flight for Bivens to head home to Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He said that while he waited at the airport, he checked Facebook again and the first thing that popped up was a headline that said two women and a small child had been killed.

“I immediately knew that was them. I found out my family was gone over a Facebook headline. And I just immediately began to scream in the middle of the airport,” he said.

Bivens said that during the plane ride home, he would just start shaking, and then he would break down and cry.

The Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office was called to a home in southern Virginia after a neighbor reported that someone might have been shot. Bernard was arrested while running around naked after an hours-long manhunt.

A competency review and determination hearing is scheduled for next week to determine whether Bernard is able to stand trial, according to ESPN.  

Bivens said the hardest moment came when he walked into his son’s room for the first time after his death.

“That was the worst moment in my life. Nothing ever will come close to feeling the way I felt at that moment. But then again, I know I will see him again one day, and it won’t be long,” he said.

Bivens said that his faith has been getting him through the more than eight months since the killings and that he has sought comfort in knowing that they are “in the arms of Jesus and they’re waiting for me to be there with them.”

“It’s been amazing how the Lord has helped and gave us peace through everything,” Bivens said.

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You can’t be obvious with your usage of these, but the potential is pretty scary

While attending Capcom Cup and PlayStation Experience this year, I was able to log some time with Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, and while most of that was spent simply checking out new moves, I was able to actually play some games with Necalli.

Seeing as Necalli’s V-Trigger is one of the absolute best in the game, it was difficult to imagine what exactly Capcom would be doing to give him an additional Trigger that players would even begin thinking about using instead.

It seems Capcom was well aware of this, and avoided it altogether by essentially giving Necalli the same V-Trigger buffs in his second option, and simply granting him access to one of two whole new attacks (he gets unlimited uses for both after activating) depending on which Trigger he chooses.

I got to test each Trigger out in a handful of actual matches, and while my understandings are nowhere near exhaustive, I do have some initial reactions to share about both Clouded Mirror (his pounce in V-Trigger 1) and his fireball in Trigger 2.

The first of these, Clouded Mirror, sees Necalli leap a short distance and attack his foe from the air. While he comes in from above, this is not an overhead attack.

Here’s some footage I grabbed of Clouded Mirror from the Capcom Cup build. Please keep in mind that things may change between this build and what we get on January 16th when Arcade Edition is officially released.

Click images for animated versions

This technique (which is done by pressing HP+HK while V-Trigger is active) has a good bit of startup as Necalli poses for a brief moment before leaping into the air to slash down at his foe. If you simply tap the command, he’s either at 0 frames or slightly negative, but not unsafe.

If you hold the buttons Necalli will charge a bit longer, but will be at plus frames if his opponent blocks. Should Clouded Mirror connect, it pops up the opponent, and Necalli can follow up with an uppercut should he land the charged version.

Necalli can leap farther if the player holds forward while inputting the command, effectively giving this attack two distinct distances.

The second new move Necalli gets (via V-Trigger 2) is a red fireball that he roars into existence by pressing HP+HK. This fireball is slow moving, hits five times, and leaves Necalli at plus frames even on block:

The most immediate reaction I had for this move was to use it after a knock down to pressure foes as they wake up and must immediately block. The start up here is fairly long, and like the pounce, will need to be masked amidst a barrage of other moves so as to catch the opponent off guard if you want to use it from the neutral.

This is fairly similar to Laura’s projectile, though it does not disappear if Necalli is hit. This led to some interesting trades when an opponent would see the move, jump in with an attack, hit Necalli, but then bounce off the fireball.

Also like the pounce, I could not get this to cancel from any of Necalli’ specials or nomals, so you can only combo from it, not into it. At first, I didn’t really see the application for these moves as they’re both relatively slow.

If an opponent knows they are coming, it seems they can be easily evaded or countered, but if you can catch your foe off guard by threatening them with the potential of other attacks, then Necalli may be able to take great advantage to either pressure or close the gap with these new techniques.

I do not know if any of Necalli’s moves have been nerfed while in V-Trigger, though I didn’t pick up on any major differences while playing (save for the fact that he no longer gets corner throw loops).

What do you think about what we’ve seen thus far with Necalli’s new V-Trigger attacks? Sound off in the comments and let us know.