(NEW YORK) — The severe heat in the Northwest has now turned deadly, with the Oregon state medical examiner reporting two suspected heat deaths on Wednesday.
With temperatures expected to stay in the triple digits across much of the Northwest this weekend, officials are warning people of the dangers.
One death was reported by Multnomah County, which includes Portland, on July 25. Officials have not said where and when the second death occurred.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for further details on the deaths.
Over a dozen counties across Oregon remain in a state of emergency on Thursday.
Spreading across the country, over 35 million Americans continue to be under excessive heat warnings or heat alerts, with many of them in the Northwest.
Redding, California, will likely near 115 degrees on Thursday to break its previous record, according to the National Weather Service.
Spokane, Washington, may also break a record on Thursday as it is projected to reach 102 degrees.
The extreme heat in the region, coupled with record warm nights, is expected to reach into next week, the NWS said.
Multnomah County officials ask residents to take the heat seriously.
Officials have set up overnight cooling shelters and a daytime cooling center along with officials from the city of Portland and community partners.
County officials said the centers will remain open until at least Friday morning.
“People don’t think they’re at risk from heat. But we have plenty of younger people ending up in the emergency room right now. It’s not cooling off much at night and we’re only halfway through this thing,” Brendon Haggerty, program supervisor at the Multnomah County Health Department, said in a statement.
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division has put measures in place to ensure safety for outdoor workers during the heat.
According to OSHA, when the heat index hits or exceeds 80 degrees, employers need to provide shady areas for workers to rest, more break time and access to plenty of water. If the index hits 90 degrees, breaks must be longer, communication must become more frequent and each worker must be monitored more closely throughout the shift.
During a 2021 heat wave, 800 people died in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia throughout late June and early July. Heat records were broken across the region, with Portland hitting 116 degrees at its peak.
Jason and Keely Roberts pose with four of their six children, including their 8-year-old twins, Luke and Cooper. – Roberts Family photo
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — Eight-year-old Cooper Roberts, who was enjoying a Fourth of July parade when he was shot in the chest in the Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting, is now paralyzed from the waist down, his mother, Keely Roberts, said.
The bullet went into his back and exited his chest, “which did significant damage throughout his body, including to his aorta, liver, esophagus and spinal cord,” Roberts said in a statement Wednesday.
Cooper remains in the hospital recovering from multiple surgeries and infections, and will need another heart surgery, she said.
“Cooper has been asking me — will I walk again? Will I have to be in a wheelchair forever?” Roberts went on. “I have been straight with him, because I have to be … we don’t know what kind of mobility he will have.”
Roberts herself was shot in two parts of her leg and needs ongoing orthopedic treatment.
Cooper’s twin, Luke, was hit by shrapnel. While his physical injuries were minor, “what he has to carry is devastating,” Roberts said.
“To hold a tourniquet on his mother’s leg … to see his twin brother’s lips go gray … to sit covered in our blood as good Samaritans provided the on-the-spot first-aid that kept us both alive… it’s too much for anyone, much less an 8-year-old,” she wrote.
Seven were killed and dozens were injured in the mass shooting. The suspected gunman is in custody.
“While I — along with Cooper and my entire family, should feel a lot of hate right now — I do not. My family does not. I find myself feeling that I have seen much more kindness than evil,” Roberts said.
The mom of six thanked the community members at the parade who rushed to help and all of the doctors and nurses who have cared for Cooper.
“They saved my son’s life,” she said. “On a holiday, when many were not in, they stepped up and made the impossible possible. There was someone who made sure to be available to run back and forth to a blood bank as needed for Cooper. Those surgeons spent six hours in the operating room refusing to let Cooper die — patch-working his liver, aorta, esophagus — again and again and again pouring blood transfusion after blood transfusion into his body.”
“The fact that Cooper is still here with us today is a miracle,” she added.
She also credited the doctors and nurses for keeping the family’s spirits up and helping Cooper stay “the happy, sweet little boy he has always been.”
Cooper and Luke “are good, sweet boys who love everyone and want good for everyone they know,” Keely Roberts said. “Their lives are so much more and better than this terrible thing than was done to them.”
The suspected mass shooter was indicted Wednesday on 117 counts. He has not entered a plea and is due in court on Aug. 3.
(NEW YORK) — Police released footage of three suspects wanted in connection with the armed robbery of a Brooklyn, New York bishop during a livestream of his service.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead said he and his wife were robbed of “hundreds of thousands” in jewelry, including his wedding band, during a targeted incident on Sunday at his church, Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry.
The New York Police Department released surveillance footage late Tuesday that shows the suspects, dressed in all black and wearing masks, crossing the street and entering the location shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday. Police said Wednesday there were no updates in the case.
Footage of the livestream, which is also part of the police investigation, shows the bishop saying “alright, alright” and lowering himself to the ground as one of the masked men enters the frame.
“When I see them come into the sanctuary with their guns, I told everybody, ‘Get down,'” Whitehead said in a video posted on Instagram. “I didn’t know if they wanted to shoot my church up or if they were coming for a robbery.”
Police said the men displayed firearms and stole a “large sum of jewelry” before fleeing in a white Mercedes.
Whitehead said that he chased after the suspects, whom he said had changed clothes and took their masks off, but ended up driving past them.
The bishop said the ministry was “traumatized” by the incident, and that a gun was pointed in the face of his 8-month-old baby. He has since offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the “healthy” arrest of the three men.
“I don’t want nothing happening to these young men,” he said in a video posted on Instagram announcing the reward. “I want the law to deal with these people.”
He decried the robbery, saying that he would have helped the men if they needed it.
“I would have been able to show love,” he said.
Following news of the robbery, Whitehead has also defended himself against criticism over his “flashy” lifestyle.
“It’s not about me being flashy,” he said. “It’s about me purchasing what I want to purchase.”
“It’s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase,” he added.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will provide a $1.25 million grant to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District for counseling students and faculty impacted by the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
“As the community of Uvalde continues to heal, Texas continues working to help improve security and aid in the recovery among students and educators,” Abbott said in a news release.
The money will be used for community outreach, crisis intervention and trauma-informed counseling through the Governor’s Public Safety Office, the statement said.
“This new source of funding will provide critical support to students, staff, and faculty in Uvalde as they continue to process the trauma from that day and grieve for the innocent lives lost,” Abbott said.
The funding comes over two months after 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary. Immediately following the incident, Abbott blamed the massacre on mental health issues in response to critics who criticized the state’s gun policies.
Texas is currently ranked as the worst state in the country for access to mental care, according to Mental Health America’s 2022 report.
A month before the school shooting, Abbott said that $500 million from various government agencies in the state would fund Operation Lone Star, a Texas-Mexico border security initiative by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department.
Approximately $210.7 million was from Texas Health & Human Services, which oversees public mental health programs.
The governor’s press secretary, Renae Eze, rejected the claim, telling ABC News in May that Abbott didn’t cut any funding from mental health services.
Abbott’s office touts a $5 million investment in establishing a long-term family resiliency center in Uvalde County, which provides access to mental health services to those impacted by the shooting, as part of its commitment to supporting the community.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed by a Baltimore family against Sesame Place, alleging racial discrimination from the theme park.
The family said it decided to come forward after videos of a Sesame Place character seemingly waving off two young Black girls at the same park went viral this summer.
Quinton Burns said he took his daughter to the amusement park on Father’s Day and during a parade of characters, he claims she, too, was ignored.
“[We] watched in utter disgust as the viral videos of these beloved Sesame Street characters were discriminating against these innocent Black children and the videos began to flood the internet,” Burns’ attorney Malcolm Ruff said at the press conference Wednesday. “She was ignored amongst a sea of other young white children, who were able to interact, give hugs, high-fives, and love from these characters that are supposed to be a source of safety, a source of equity, a source of kindness.”
“We will review the lawsuit filed on behalf of Mr. Burns,” Sesame Place told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “We look forward to addressing that claim through the established legal process. We are committed to deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience for all our guests.”
The suit claims that Sesame Place violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which protects people against racial discrimination in the creation and enforcement of contracts. When the family bought tickets, they entered a contract with the amusement park and by allegedly being discriminated by costume character actors, this contract was “breached, solely because of the race of the children,” Ruff said.
Video of the encounter is set to be released in the coming days by the family’s attorneys, according to Ruff.
In the incident involving girls from another family that prompted the Burns family to come forward, a “Sesame Street” character named Rosita is seen giving high-fives to parkgoers as she walks down the line, before appearing to shake her head at and wave off the two girls as she walks away from them.
“#BabyPaige & her cute lil friends went to @SesamePlace this weekend to celebrate Paige’s 4th birthday & this is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” the tweet, posted by the apparent aunt, Jodi Brown, of the girl celebrating her birthday, read.
In the park’s initial statement, it said the performer portraying Rosita intended the “no” hand gesture in response to requests to hold children for a photo and did not intentionally ignore the girls.
The park said it has apologized to the family directly and has invited them for a meet-and-greet with the characters, as well as an in-person apology.
“We sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the Brown family for what they experienced,” park officials said in a previous statement to ABC News. “To be very clear, what the two young girls experienced, what the family experienced, is unacceptable. It happened in our park, with our team, and we own that. It is our responsibility to make this better for the children and the family and to be better for all families.”
The park said it will implement mandatory bias training so “our employees so that we can better recognize, understand, and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience for all our guests. We have already engaged with nationally recognized experts in this area,” the statement read.
The legal team representing the family of the two girls in the video has called for the costumed performer to be fired.
Footage of other incidents with Sesame Place characters and Black children were posted by others alleging they were treated similarly.
Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of Sesame Workshop and is owned by Sea World.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(LEE COUNTY, Fla.) — Transgender students in Lee County School District in Florida who want to be identified by teachers and principals with pronouns that correspond with their gender identity will now have to fill out a Gender Support Plan.
“If a student does complete a gender support plan, which will by law require their parents’ involvement, it is a confidential document and available only to the school counselor and student,” said Rob Spicker, the assistant director of media relations and public information at Lee County Schools.
Without a completed gender support plan, with a parent’s signature, school staff will use the student’s name and gender as it is identified in the school’s system. Students who are 18 or older will not be required to have a parent’s signature.
Local parent Crystal Czyscon told ABC affiliate WZVN that she believed the document was discriminatory and “frightening,” fearing that students may be singled out.
The plan, a copy of which was acquired by WZVN, is to be filled out between a student and their counselor. It asks questions like whether the parents know about the student’s trans or nonbinary status, whether the student has support at home, how public is the student’s gender status, which school employees will be designated support systems and what will be the plan if a child is outed.
In defense of the district, Spicker said the plan is tended to protect LGBTQ students and denied that the plan is some form of registry of trans students. It is not required for trans students to fill out the form, he said. However, if they do not fill it out, they may only be identified by school faculty with their gender assigned at birth.
The move comes amid the implementation of the Parental Rights in Education law , dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics. The measure was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March.
It bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and states that any instruction on those topics cannot occur “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” according to the legislation, HB 1557.
Under this law, parents can also decline any mental, emotional and physical health services available to their children at school, and schools will be required to notify parents of their child’s use of school health services unless there is reason to believe “that disclosure would subject the student to abuse, abandonment or neglect.”
The law also requires parents to be involved if a transgender student seeks to have the school use a preferred name or pronoun, Spicker noted.
The Gender Support Plan is part of the school’s Equity Guide, which was created in response to the Parents Bill of Rights law. It was intended to outline how LGBTQ students will be protected by the district in a way that follows the guidelines of the new law, Spicker said.
“The School District of Lee County’s Civil Rights and Equity Guide was developed to protect the rights of all students,” he said. “The guide helps our school staff manage that request to protect the student and follow the law.”
(CHICAGO) — The young man accused of carrying out a mass shooting at a suburban Chicago Fourth of July parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others, has been indicted on 117 counts, prosecutors in Lake County, Illinois, said Wednesday.
Robert “Bobby” Crimo III is charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder (three counts for each victim) as well as 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm (for each person hit by a bullet, bullet fragment, or shrapnel), prosecutors said.
“Our investigation continues, and our victim specialists are working around the clock to support all those affected by this crime,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a statement.
Crimo, 21, allegedly took his legally purchased high-powered rifle and opened fire from a roof, shooting people who were enjoying the Highland Park parade.
Crimo has not entered a plea. His arraignment is set for Aug. 3.
Authorities said they believe the mass shooting had been planned for weeks.
Crimo told police he wore women’s clothing during the shooting and used makeup to hide his facial tattoos and blend in with the crowd during the chaos, prosecutors said. Crimo was apprehended hours later and prosecutors said the 21-year-old confessed to the shooting.
After the shooting, the suspect’s father, Bobby Crimo Jr., told ABC News he was “shocked,” adding, “I had no — not an inkling, warning — that this was going to happen.”
“This isn’t Bobby,” he said. “I guess that’s why it’s so hard to wrap yourself around it. It doesn’t add up.”
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering last week pleaded with Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban.
“Less than a minute is all it took for a person with an assault weapon to shoot 83 rounds into a crowd, forever changing so many lives,” Rotering told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And the most disturbing part, this is the norm in our country.”
(WASHINGTON) — A West Virginia man charged in the Jan. 6 assault of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges.
George Tanios was arrested two months after the Jan. 6 attack, along with Julian Khater, who investigators identified in videos as having deployed bear spray against three officers outside of the Capitol, including Sicknick.
Sicknick died the day after the riot of natural causes after suffering at least two strokes, according to the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office.
Tanios pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering and remaining on restricted grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Khater has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges stemming from the alleged assault, and is set to go on trial in October.
Prosecutors said in Wednesday’s hearing they have also extended a plea offer to Khater and they continue to negotiate with his counsel, but they warned that the offer will expire by Aug. 17.
Khater could face between 78 and 97 months behind bars as part of his sentence if he were to accept the plea deal of two counts of felony assaults on officers, prosecutors said.
That amount would be more than a year longer than the two harshest sentences given to any Capitol rioters thus far.
As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, Tanios faces a potential range of 0-6 months behind bars, though he has already served five months in pre-trial detention following his arrest, for which he would receive credit.
In their original affidavit against Khater and Tanios, investigators cited open source videos that they said showed Khater at one point telling Tanios “Give me that bear s—” before reaching into a backpack Tanios was wearing.
Tanios then responded, “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet … it’s still early.”
“This verbal exchange between Khater and Tanios, together with Khater’s retrieval of the spray can from Tanios, reveals that the two were working in concert and had a plan to use the toxic spray against law enforcement,” the charging documents said.
