(LOS ANGELES) — Anne Heche is not expected to survive the brain injury she suffered in a fiery car crash in Los Angeles and is being kept on life support to determine if her organs are viable, according to her family.
The family and friends of the Emmy-winning actress released a statement Thursday evening about her comatose condition which is not expected to improve.
“Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive,” the statement read.
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”
Heche’s loved one went on to describe her as having a “huge heart” and “generous spirit.”
“More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light,” the statement continued.
Heche, 53, is “unconscious” and in “critical condition” after she was involved in the one-car crash, which also damaged a Los Angeles home last week, her representative confirmed to ABC News on Monday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday that they received results of blood that was drawn shortly after the crash, which showed she had narcotics in her system.
Meredith Deliso, Alex Stone and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
Kevin C. Downs/The New York Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Allen Weisselberg, for decades the chief financial officer of former President Donald Trump’s namesake family business, is due in a New York court Friday for a hearing in his criminal case.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged Weisselberg and the Trump Organization last summer with tax fraud after they were accused of compensating employees “off the books” in order to pay less in taxes. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty.
According to the charging documents, Weisselberg avoided taxes on more than $1.7 million in the past 15 years, resulting from the payment of his rent on an apartment in a Trump-owned building and related expenses that prosecutors said included cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
The court hearing is a capstone on an extraordinary week for Trump that began with an FBI search of his Florida residence and included a deposition as part of a civil investigation by the New York Attorney general’s office.
Trump has not been charged in the Manhattan DA case but the ongoing criminal investigation, which parallels the New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case, may have factored into his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during Wednesday’s deposition.
The hearing for Weisselberg is expected to be largely procedural but could include the setting of a trial date, which is expected sometime in October.
Weisselberg recently switched up his legal team, adding Nick Gravante, who represented two other Trump Org employees that avoided charges in the Manhattan DA’s probe.
“If there was a deal to be reached in this case, there has been plenty of time to do it,” Mr. Gravante said. “My mission now is to lead this trial team and win, and that’s what I intend to do.”
(MANCHESTER, N.H.) — Authorities have determined that Harmony Montgomery, a little girl who disappeared in 2019, was murdered in Manchester, New Hampshire, in early December 2019, officials announced Thursday.
Harmony would be 8 years old if alive today.
Harmony’s remains have not been found but “multiple sources of investigative information, including biological evidence,” led to the conclusion that she’s dead, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said at a news conference.
The missing persons case is now a homicide investigation, he said.
“Our investigators will continue to seek justice and look into the circumstances of Harmony’s murder and search for her remains,” Formella said.
“I’m beyond saddened,” Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said.
“There have been many discussions, speculations and questions relative to where the system failed Harmony, and I myself continue to share the same concerns and still have many remaining questions,” he said. “However, the homicide of this little girl rests with the person or persons who committed this horrific act. The Manchester Police Department will do everything within the limits of the law to ensure that the responsible person or persons for the murder of Harmony are brought to justice.”
Aldenberg said he believes “there are people out there in the community that have information about this investigation who have yet to come forward.
“If you are that person, I implore you to do so now and come forward,” he said. “Do it for this little girl.”
Aldenberg urged anyone with information to call the tip line at 603-203-6060.
The attorney general and police chief did not take questions from the media at Thursday’s news conference. No suspect was named.
Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, had custody of her until 2018, according to a state report released in February. In 2019, a Massachusetts court ordered Harmony be sent to live with her father, Adam Montgomery, in New Hampshire, state officials said.
Harmony’s last confirmed home was in Manchester with her father, her stepmother Kayla Montgomery, and her two half-siblings, according to state officials.
Sorey said the last time she saw Harmony was via FaceTime in spring 2019, officials said.
In July 2019, an anonymous call was made to New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families alleging that in a visit a week earlier, he or she saw Harmony “had a black eye that Adam Montgomery admitted to causing,” the report said. The same day as the anonymous call, a case worker visited and didn’t see a black eye on Harmony, the report said.
One week later, that same case worker noted a red mark and faded bruising under Harmony’s eyelid, and both Harmony and Adam Montgomery told the worker the mark was from being hit by a toy while playing, the report said.
In subsequent visits to the home, “the children appeared happy and healthy,” the report said. In the last visit, in October 2019, case workers found the abuse allegations unfounded, but added, “the situation was scored high risk for future child welfare involvement pursuant to the Risk Assessment tool citing the history of substance use, prior family history with child protection, and economic challenges,” according to the report.
In January 2020, Adam Montgomery told the child protective services worker that Harmony had been living in Massachusetts with her mother since Thanksgiving 2019, the report said. The worker left a voicemail with Sorey to confirm Harmony lived there, but never heard back, the report said.
In September 2021, someone close to Harmony’s mother contacted the Division for Children, Youth and Families with concerns, and the agency determined Harmony had never been registered for school in Manchester, the report said.
The Division for Children, Youth and Families then searched for Adam and Kayla Montgomery.
When police found Adam Montgomery in December 2021, he gave the authorities “contradictory and unconvincing explanations of Harmony’s whereabouts,” the report said. Adam Montgomery allegedly told police Harmony’s mother had picked her up, even though Kayla Montgomery told police that Adam Montgomery told her he drove Harmony back to her mother on the day after Thanksgiving 2019, according to the report.
At that point, the investigation became a missing child case, the report said.
(NEW YORK) — The current teacher shortage facing the United States is a “five-alarm crisis,” according to Rebecca Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country.
“We have been sounding the alarm for almost a decade and a half that we have a crisis in the number of students who are going into the teaching profession and the number of teachers who are leaving it,” said Pringle. “But, of course, as with everything else, the pandemic just made it worse.”
Pringle spoke to ABC News’ “GMA3” Thursday about the shortage of nearly 300,000 educators and support staff across the country.
GMA3: How bad is the teacher shortage this upcoming school year?
PRINGLE: This is that time of year back to school when educators, parents, students are excited and they’re hopeful. This year, of course, is good as students go back to school.
We are concerned about the teacher shortages and staff shortages throughout this country, in rural and suburban and urban areas. And I will tell you that we know that if we don’t have enough educators, then our students aren’t going to have the one-on-one attention they need and deserve.
GMA3: Is there a way for you to gauge how bad it is this year compared to previous years?
PRINGLE: We know that this has been a chronic problem. This is not new. We have been sounding the alarm for almost a decade and a half that we have a crisis in the number of students who are going into the teaching profession and the number of teachers who are leaving it.
But of course, as with everything else, the pandemic just made it worse. We are estimating about 300,000 shortages of teachers and support staff across this nation as students go back to school. But I will tell you that we have been sounding this alarm since last year and we have been working really, really hard to try to do something about it.
GMA3: According to the National Education Association, 55% of educators are saying that they are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they anticipated… You mentioned the pandemic as perhaps why this is happening, but how do you combat that?
PRINGLE: We were shocked when we saw those statistics of the number of educators who are planning on leaving the profession. And it’s even higher for Black teachers and Latina teachers. We know how important it is to have a diverse workforce. We have been working to try to address those issues.
One of the things that I’ve learned from educators — I traveled all over the country, from Kentucky to California to Maine to Wisconsin to Illinois — and they all said the same thing. This is what they need to come into the profession and stay in the profession. They need professional respect.
For them that is three things: Professional authority to make teaching and learning decisions for their students. Professional rights to have the conditions and resources to do the jobs they love. And professional pay that reflects the importance of the work they do.
GMA3: What does a child’s education, their day, their classroom look like with this type of teacher shortage?
PRINGLE: The concerns that our educators and parents have raised, which are playing out, [and] played out last year… is that we had to double-up classes.
[Also] we had to not necessarily offer the special education services that our special education students need. We knew that there were too many educators who were overwhelmed by the number of students that they were trying to meet the individual needs of, and we don’t have enough substitutes.
So, we found that many of our educators were coming into school sick and they weren’t taking care of themselves. We know that the well-being of our teachers and our educators absolutely impacts the well-being of our students. So, this is a huge problem.
But we are working to use the funding from the American Rescue Plan to actually bring the resources that we need into schools to make those long-term solutions work right now.
GMA3: And speaking of a shortage of resources, obviously, so many people are in financial distress during these economic times. And the average back-to-school shopping for parents sets most families back $864. That is a significant burden for so many families. Is there anything that can be done to ease that burden?
PRINGLE: We encourage everyone to continue to push to make sure their school districts, and use the American Rescue funds, to make sure that the schools have the resources that students need. And parents and families don’t have to supply as much as they have been.
We also know there is an increase in the number of dollars that teachers are pulling out from their own pockets, taking away from their own families, to try to meet those needs and those gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, from food crisis to housing crisis, health care crisis.
We know all of that has impacted our communities of color, especially in those communities where they have been chronically underserved. So, we ask that people continue to raise their voices and join with us… to make sure that all of our schools are funded, so all of our students have what they need and they deserve.
Albuquerque Police Department via AFP/Getty Images
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M) — The man charged in the killings of at least two of the four Muslim men killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in recent months has a history of arrests for domestic violence, police said.
Muhammad Syed, 51, is charged with murder in the shooting deaths of 25-year-old Naeem Hussain on Aug. 5 and 41-year-old Aftab Hussein on July 26, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Syed denied being involved in the deaths of the men after he was arrested, according to police.
Investigators said they are working with the district attorney’s office on potential charges for the murders of the other two local men who were killed within months of one another.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, was found fatally shot on Aug. 1. Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, was killed last November outside a business he ran with his brother, police said.
The victims of the shootings in August and July were from Pakistan. Ahmadi was from Afghanistan.
Syed moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan several years ago and has since been arrested at least twice on misdemeanor domestic violence charges, police said.
According to a criminal complaint from May 2018, Syed and his wife had an argument that turned physical while in a state Department of Human Services office.
Syed claimed his wife slapped him while they were arguing in the car and kicked him while in the waiting room of the office, the complaint says. His wife told police Syed pulled her by the hair and kicked her out of the vehicle, forcing her to walk for almost two hours to the office. When she arrived, the argument continued and she claimed Syed grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground, according to the complaint.
An employee at the office told police that she found Syed’s wife on the floor with a large piece of hair that had fallen to the ground, the complaint says. Employees stated that Syed arrived about an hour and a half before his wife arrived, according to the complaint.
He was placed under arrest for battery on a household member, but his wife did not want to pursue charges or participate in prosecution, which led to the dismissal of the case, according to a spokesperson from the Office of the Second Judicial District Attorney.
In December 2018, Syed’s son called officers to the home, and claimed that the father was “striking” the mother and son, according to a criminal complaint. The son had locked himself in his room after the son had been hit by his father with a metal spoon, which drew blood on the back of his head, the complaint says.
The son advised officers that Syed had routinely beaten him and his mother in the past. Syed denied any violence, the criminal complaint showed. Victims were again unwilling to pursue charges or cooperate with police.
An attorney for Syed did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I hope that our community can breathe a sigh of relief and be assured about safety and security that our main suspect has been put behind bars and that’s where he belongs,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a press conference Aug. 10.
(LAUPAHOEHOE, Hi.) — Social media personality Courtney Clenney has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon, months after the death of her 27-year-old boyfriend Christian Obumseli.
The 26-year-old, who goes under the name Courtney Tailor on Instagram, was arrested in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, Wednesday after Miami-Dade County prosecutors issued a warrant for her arrest in the April 3 stabbing, police said.
Miami-Dade County’s chief medical examiner determined Obumseli’s cause of death was a stab to the chest with a knife, which punctured his subclavian artery, Katherine Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney, said at a press conference Thursday.
The stab wound was the result of a forceful downward thrust, just over 3 inches into the artery, Rundle said.
Rundle alleged Obumseli and Clenney were involved in an “extremely tempestuous combative” relationship since November 2020.
“It was learned that the security and building staff at the Miami apartment documented many incidents of loud arguments between the couple after they moved into the building in January 2022. Tenants as far as an apartment two floors above were making complaints to security and building management about the noises and the ruckus,” Rundle said.
Building management was going to evict the couple due to the many complaints, Rundle said.
Rundle said tenants called the building manager the day of the stabbing to report a disturbance. The manager then called 911. Eleven minutes later, Clenney called 911, notifying them that Obumseli was stabbed and needed help, Rundle said.
Obumseli can be heard on the 911 call repeatedly saying that he was dying and he was losing feeling in his arm, according to Rundle. Clenney is heard saying, “I’m so sorry, baby,” Rundle said.
According to Rundle, Clenney told police that Obumseli shoved her against the wall by the neck but he did not choke her and then claimed he threw her to the ground but allowed her to get up. Rundle added that Clenney moved to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. As he approached her, Clenney alleged that she threw the knife from a distance of about 10 feet, Rundle said.
The medical examiner said throwing the knife from that distance would not have caused the fatal stab wound, according to Rundle.
Clenney has alleged the stabbing was in self-defense but police said they observed no injuries on Clenney that would have corroborated her account. Clenney also allegedly provided several inconsistent accounts about the incident itself and never stated that Obumseli was armed with any type of weapon, Rundle said.
Clenney’s attorney, Frank Prieto, has also claimed the fatal April 3 stabbing was self-defense, saying Clenney’s allegatio. aligned with evidence found at the scene, he said in an NewsNation interview posted on his website.
Miami Police Chief Chief Manny Morales alleged that Clenney lied about being thrown to the ground the day of the stabbing, he told reporters.
Clenney is being held at the Hawai’i Police Department’s East Hawai’i Detention Center pending her initial court appearance. Rundle said Thursday that Clenney has not yet appeared in court.
Clenney will be given the option to waive or contest extradition when she appears in court. Clenney’s attorney has told officials she intends to waive extradition, which would allow officials to facilitate her return to Florida, Rundle said.
Clenney was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service with assistance from members of the Hawaii Police Department, Hawaii police said in a press release.
Rundle also showed elevator footage of the couple dated Feb. 21 in which Clenney appears to physically attack Obumseli repeatedly. Rundle said the evidence suggested Clenney was being violent toward Obumseli.
Police had also responded to arguments at the apartment on April 1, two days before the stabbing, Rundle said.
Prieto said Clenney was placed under a mental health hold on the night of the stabbing and she was “completely distraught” in the interview. Prieto said Clenney was released to her family within 48 hours. Prieto did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
(DALLAS) — A man accused of shooting three Asian American women at a Dallas hair salon in May was indicted Tuesday on multiple counts, including committing a hate crime and aggravated assault, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Jeremy Smith, 37, is charged with seven counts of aggravated assault, each with a hate-crime enhancement and punishable by five years to life in prison. He was arrested by Dallas police on May 16 and remains in the county jail with bail set at $700,000.
After Smith entered the Koreatown establishment on May 11, he allegedly fired 13 shots from a .22-caliber rifle, injuring three women — the salon owner, an employee and a customer — and endangering four others. The three women, who are all Korean, suffered nonfatal injuries and were transported to a local hospital after the shooting, police said.
Smith allegedly targeted the victims because of “his bias or prejudice against Asian Americans,” according to the announcement.
Smith’s girlfriend told police detectives he had been paranoid about Asian Americans since being involved in a car crash two years ago with an Asian man, according to a police affidavit.
Whenever Smith is around an Asian American person, he begins having delusions that “the Asian mob is after him or attempting to harm him” and was fired for “verbally attacking” his Asian boss, his girlfriend said, according to the police affidavit.
According to the affidavit, she told police Smith experienced panic attacks because of his delusions and was even admitted to several mental health facilities.
Texas federal prosecutors, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division partnered for a federal hate crime investigation into Smith.
Over recent years, the country has seen a sharp increase in anti-Asian violence. Many attacks have been captured in viral videos, intensifying fear and anger among Asian Americans.
Last May, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law, which designates a Justice Department official to focus on reviewing incidents and provides grants to police departments so they can establish hotlines for hate crime reporting.
However, the law has also drawn rebuke for increasing policing and bolstering a carceral system some say is demonstrably ineffective at preventing crime and discriminatory, particularly toward Black Americans.
(WASHINGTON) — A year ago, America ended its longest war and withdrew troops from Afghanistan. After occupying the country for two decades, the withdrawal immediately led to a dangerous situation for any U.S. allies still left in the country, who risked retribution from the Taliban.
During the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the bond between two men from opposite worlds proved to be unshakeable and led to the rescue of a desperate family. They are now sharing their experiences in a dual memoir, “Always Faithful.”
After several failed attempts to leave, interpreter Zainullah Zaki, known as Zak, who had worked for the U.S. military for several years in Afghanistan, his wife and their four small children were able to leave Afghanistan safely – with the aid of Marine Corps Maj. Thomas Schueman, who helped from the other side of the world.
Schueman left Afghanistan in 2013, Zak remained in Afghanistan. As the Taliban took over Afghanistan’s capital, Schueman said he immediately thought of his friend and began to make calls, texts and social media posts to try to find someone who could help.
Meanwhile, Zak spent days in Kabul working to get the proper documents he needed for himself and his family to come to the United States, as Schueman worked from the United States to devise a strategy to get Zak out of the country, ABC News reported in August 2021.
Finally, Schueman said he found someone at the Kabul International Airport to look for Zak’s family and secure spots for them on a plane to Qatar.
Schueman and Zak first met in Helmand Province in 2010. Schueman said that Zak quickly became “family.”
“It quickly became apparent that Zak was there to do so much more than simply translate our words; that he was there to fight alongside us,” said Schueman. “He became one of the members of my platoon, and he was almost immediately family to us.”
Chaos ensued in August 2021, when the U.S. began withdrawing the troops left in Afghanistan after spending nearly two decades in the country.
Zak recalled the onset of the war in 2001 and the first time he saw American soldiers arrive in his country.
“When the Americans came, they were working [to build] Afghanistan. They work for our bright future,” said Zak. “I decided to go and join the U.S. Army and work together, side by side with them.”
Although he was able to help Zak, Schueman said his work is far from over. He is continuing to advocate and push lawmakers to help other U.S. allies safely evacuate.
“I do believe that many people have very good intentions to support our allies,” said Schueman. “It just seems that the red tape to honor some of these promises that we made to the allies sometimes seem nearly insurmountable.”
Schueman said that the two hope that their story can help draw attention to people like Zak and their experiences during the war.
“I think it’s important to have that dual narrative perspective where you don’t have an American telling what Afghanistan is like,” said Schueman. “You have someone who was born there and raised there. Telling us about their culture, about their religion, about their history. And so I think that’s imperative in this type of story.”
(CINCINNATI) — An hourslong standoff between law enforcement and an armed man who allegedly tried to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati office has ended, officials said.
The status of the suspect was not immediately clear.
Ohio State Highway Patrol started pursuing the suspect shortly after 9:30 a.m. after he allegedly fled from the field office.
Troopers followed the suspect, who was driving a white Ford Crown Victoria, to Clinton County, where shots were fired, according to officials.
The suspect, who officials said was armed with a rifle and wearing body armor, had been contained in a cornfield off Interstate 71 near Wilmington, according to Clinton County Emergency Management. The suspect appeared to have a gunshot wound to his leg but was mobile, according to a law enforcement source.
The suspect was allegedly armed with an AR15-style rifle and also brandished a nail gun during the alleged break-in attempt at the FBI field office in Cincinnati, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Clinton County Emergency Management alerted around 4:30 p.m. that the law enforcement response “has ended.”
A lockdown was in effect within a 1-mile radius of the standoff scene. People were instructed to lock doors and stay inside.
The man led police on a chase along Interstate 71 before exiting near Wilmington. Ohio State Highway Patrol said shots were fired from the suspect’s vehicle before it exited and, once it pulled off the interstate, gunshots were exchanged between the suspect and police.
No officers have been injured, police said.
It remains unclear why the man allegedly tried to break into the FBI office but it comes amid a series of threats following the FBI’s court-authorized search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(PAULSBORO, N.J.) — Officials have cracked the code on what was stinking up southern New Jersey this week, after authorities removed a truck that was releasing chemical fumes on Thursday morning.
According to New Jersey officials, the foul smell has been reported across several counties before being identified on Wednesday.
A tanker truck at a truck stop was releasing a chemical that caused the stench around Paulsboro, Gloucester County, officials said.
Gloucester County Emergency Management issued a shelter-in-place around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday for East Greenwich, Paulsboro, Gibbstown and areas across the Delaware River after the fumes worsened. The issue was lifted approximately two hours later.
“It’s doing exactly what it should do. When the temperature rises to a certain level, the vessel itself will actually expel fumes. So it’s built to do that,” East Greenwich Township Police Chief Matthew Brenner said on Wednesday. “There’s no leak per se.”
The smell, which affected the noses of numerous South Jersey residents, led to several 911 calls to emergency crews around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Soon after, authorities tracked down the reeking vehicle at the TA Truck Service Area on the 100 block of Berkley Road in Paulsboro off I-295 where it was releasing fumes from its rear tanker.
According to officials, complaints came from neighboring counties as far as Buena Vista Township, Atlantic County.
However, the truck wasn’t actually removed until Thursday morning.
The East Greenwich Township Police Department said the tanker is expelling fumes from a fuel additive chemical called Lubrizol 1395 (Zinc Alkyldithiophosphate).
The chemical can cause health hazards such as possible skin irritation and eye damage, according to its safety data sheet. However, its data doesn’t say the level of its toxicity if inhaled.
Hazmat crews monitored and tested the air quality around the scene and officials confirmed there is no risk to the public, despite the uncomfortable odor.
To remove the truck, officials evacuated the surrounding area within 200 feet of the tanker, as officials said the chemical is combustible under the right conditions. Officials said that there is little risk to the public, however, especially as the truck is now removed.
No injuries have been reported due to the chemicals released.
A representative from Lubrizol told ABC News Philadelphia station WPVI they are aware of the situation and investigating but have no further comment.
The Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management will be opening a call center for residents with questions or concerns. The call center phone number is 856-384-6800. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
