Jewish community in Highland Park grieves, takes action after mass shooting

Jewish community in Highland Park grieves, takes action after mass shooting
Jewish community in Highland Park grieves, takes action after mass shooting
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — Rabbi Michael Sommer’s congregation has been “in a state of shock” ever since seven people were killed in a mass shooting during a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

Sommer, the leader of the Har Shalom congregation, told ABC News that both he and the majority of his congregants are from Highland Park. The congregation meets in nearby Northbrook.

Many of his congregants were at the suburb’s Fourth of July parade where a shooter opened fire from a rooftop.

“Everyone is in a state of grief. Everyone is looking how lucky they were to have their family safe… So everyone is trying to pull together, we hope; we all know each other here. It’s a very warm community,” Sommer said.

Highland Park is among a group of suburbs north of Chicago, including Skokie, Glencoe, and Deerfield, that have large Jewish communities and a constellation of synagogues, Kosher and Jewish restaurants, and organizations serving the Jewish community.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Jewish community there is trying to grieve and find meaning through Jewish institutions and practice, even though leaders say that it is too soon to truly be healing.

Jewish news outlet The Forward reported that five of the seven victims were either Jewish or members of Jewish families.

One of them was Katherine Goldstein, who was a mother to two adult daughters, an avid bird watcher, and a lover of travel, according to a friend of hers who spoke with ABC News. She was 64.

Her synagogue’s rabbi, Ike Serotta, described her and her family as “just remarkable people.”

“All of them are the most incredible, gentle, kind, caring people that you could ever want to meet,” said Serotta, who leads the Makom Solel Lakeside congregation in Highland Park, told ABC News. “And Katie was just a delightful, funny, vibrant person who was really just one of the kindest people you could ever expect to meet in this world.”

While authorities have not said what motivated the suspect, investigative groups have pointed to the suspect’s social media posts as gravitating towards far-right ideas. The suspect also reportedly visited the Central Avenue Synagogue, a Chabad Jewish center in Highland Park, around Passover, leaving on his own after his presence raised concerns.

Michla Tzipporah Schanowitz, who runs the Central Avenue Synagogue with her husband Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz, described dealing with the events of July 4 as “kind of overload, trying to process the sorrow and the pain of what happened, and the shock. But also at the same time, knowing that we can do so much to bring so much light and goodness into the world.”

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Jewish leaders in the community scrambled to provide support to their congregants and to the broader community.

For Sommer, that meant helping out with social services at the local high school, as well as calling congregants to check in with them to see how they are doing. “I dread the phone calls I miss, or the phone number I don’t have, or who I should have called that I didn’t,” Sommer said.

And for Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz, that meant rushing to Highland Park’s hospital, where he regularly volunteers as a chaplain. He went from door to door, with “no time for small talk… I didn’t even ask people their names. They urged me to go from from door to door, and it was [for people of] all faiths,” Schanowitz said.

“I just poked my head into the door and just being introduced as I’m clergy and I just want to wish you all the best; our prayers are with you and God give you strength and bless you, and went on to the next room unless somebody needed to talk,” he added. “But in most cases, they were all traumatized, and there wasn’t a lot of back and forth discussion.”

The Jewish Sabbath, which runs from Friday night at sundown to Saturday night at sundown, exemplifies rest and joy in Jewish tradition.

“We’re supposed to celebrate Shabbat with with song and joy, and it was very subdued. And I added some outside readings to express our pain… and God’s presence in our lives to help us on this journey of healing and through our grief,” Sommer said.

Michla Tzippora Schanowitz said that ahead of the Shabbat, she worked with others to give out Shabbat candlestick kits, used for the ritual lighting of Shabbat candles at sundown on Friday. “And people were very receptive… it felt like it was able to channel their feeling of yes, bring light, spiritual light” after such a dark week.

Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said that at the Seudah Shlishit, a third meal of the Sabbath that is usually held in synagogue between afternoon and evening services on Saturday, the congregation took some time to reflect.

“We also went around the table, and people had an opportunity to express themselves–where they had been [during the shooting], and the effect that it had on them, and who they knew that may have been hurt, and so on,” Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said.

Serotta cautioned against speaking about the Jewish community being ready to heal so soon after the shooting.

“When something as evil and unnatural as this, I can’t say how long it will be until people are ready to start talking about the word healing,” he said.

Looking ahead, some of leaders emphasized discussions around enhancing synagogue security in light of the shooting, staying connected and finding strength with the broader community.

“We’ve always felt a responsibility one for another as a Jewish community, and also responsibility to other people who live in our community,” Michla Tzippora Schanowitz told ABC News. “We always rise to the occasion and support each other. And we’re doing that here and we’ll continue to do that.”

ABC News’ Will McDuffie and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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Jayland Walker had 46 gunshot wounds in his body, autopsy report reveals

Jayland Walker had 46 gunshot wounds in his body, autopsy report reveals
Jayland Walker had 46 gunshot wounds in his body, autopsy report reveals
Angelo Merendino/Getty Images

(AKRON, Ohio) — Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by police in Akron, Ohio, had 46 gunshot wounds on his body, according to an autopsy report conducted by the Summit Co. Medical Examiner’s Office.

“The autopsy determined that Jayland had 46 gunshot wound entrances or graze injuries,” chief medical examiner Lisa Kohler said at a Friday press conference. She later added, “The photographic record shows more than 46 labeled wounds because there are exit wounds, bullets beneath the skin and abrasions that were numbered for the purpose of identifying specific injuries.”

Walker also had injuries to his face, heart, both lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines, pelvis, iliac artery and several bones in his legs, according to Kohler

His manner of death has been ruled homicide and the toxicology report showed no use of drugs nor alcohol by Walker at the time of the incident.

“The family is devastated by the findings of the report and still await a public apology from the police department,” the Walker family’s legal team said in a statement to ABC News.

Walker was unarmed when he was fatally shot by police on June 27 after a traffic stop turned into a pursuit. He was running away when eight officers opened fire on him, body camera footage released by the city showed.

Officials said they attempted to pull Walker over for a traffic violation and an equipment violation with his car. He allegedly refused to stop, which set off a chase that ended in his death.

Officials said a flash of light seen in body camera footage appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun coming from the driver’s side of Walker’s car.

In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that a shot was being fired from Walker’s car. The footage shows an officer following Walker’s Buick off Route 8 and continuing the pursuit on side streets.

At one point, Walker slowed down and jumped out of the passenger side door before it came to a full stop, according to the footage. As Walker ran away from police, several officers simultaneously fired several bullets, fatally shooting him.

A gun was later recovered inside the car, but Walker was unarmed when he was shot.

The officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave and have not been named.

The incident is under investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The United Nations has joined, offering help via a task force designed to address racial injustice and inequity in law enforcement.

The national civil rights group NAACP has called upon the Department of Justice to investigate Walker’s death.

“We are urging you and your Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Jayland Walker, and – if what we all saw with our own eyes is true – federally charge the officers responsible for his gruesome assassination,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.

Walker’s funeral was held just days before the autopsy report, where he was described by family and friends as “kind” and “gentle.”

ABC News’ Amanda Su contributed to this report.

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1 million fentanyl pills linked to Sinaloa Cartel seized in record-breaking drug bust

1 million fentanyl pills linked to Sinaloa Cartel seized in record-breaking drug bust
1 million fentanyl pills linked to Sinaloa Cartel seized in record-breaking drug bust
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

(INGLEWOOD, Calif.) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seized approximately one million pills laced with fentanyl allegedly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel in what authorities say is the biggest bust for the drug in California history.

The seizure happened earlier this month in Inglewood, California, after the DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Group 48, along with the DEA New York Division Tactical Diversion Squad and Hawthorne Police Department, had been investigating a Los Angeles-area drug trafficking organization since May that authorities believed was linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.

“DEA agents identified Southern California narcotic couriers and stash house managers who were responsible for distributing narcotics to other drug distributors in the area,” the DEA said in a press release regarding the seizure.

Authorities subsequently obtained a federal search warrant and executed the drug bust on July 5 at a residence in Inglewood which resulted in the seizure of approximately one million fake pills laced with fentanyl that were intended for retail distribution with an estimated street value of between $15 to $20 million.

“This massive seizure disrupted the flow of dangerous amounts of fentanyl into our streets and probably saved many lives,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner. “The deceptive marketing coupled with the ease of accessibility makes these small and seemingly innocuous pills a significant threat to the health and safety of all our communities. A staggering number of teens and young adults are unaware that they are ingesting fentanyl in these fake pills and are being poisoned.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and is a synthetic opioid that is approved for treating severe pain but can often be diverted for abuse and misuse.

“Most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the U.S. are linked to illegally made fentanyl,” the CDC warns on their website. “It is sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/or cocaine as a combination product — with or without the user’s knowledge — to increase its euphoric effects.”

More than 107,000 Americans have died as a result of fentanyl overdose or poisoning, according to the CDC.

“Criminal drug networks in Mexico are mass-producing illicit fentanyl and fake pills pressed with fentanyl in filthy, clandestine, unregulated labs,” the DEA warned in their statement. “These fake pills are designed to look like real prescription pills right down to the size, shape, color and stamping. These fake pills typically replicate real prescription opioid medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax); or stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall).”

According to the DEA, Los Angeles is a major transport and shipment hub for illegal drugs coming from the U.S.-Mexico border and are often stored in warehouses, storage units and residential properties in the region.

“The bulk shipments of drugs are usually broken down into smaller quantities and transported to other states or distributed to local dealers,” the DEA said. “The greater Los Angeles area has many international airports, freeways, and bus and train lines that make it easy for shipments to be smuggled to other destinations.

The DEA, however, has been getting more successful year on year at stopping and seizing drug shipments. The DEA offices in Los Angeles seized approximately three million fentanyl pills in 2021 — close to three times the amount seized in 2020. And, in the first four months alone of 2022, DEA Los Angeles have seized an estimated 1.5 million of the pills — a 64% increase over the same period in 2021.

This investigation into the drug trafficking organization is ongoing.

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Buffalo supermarket, site of mass shooting, reopens

Buffalo supermarket, site of mass shooting, reopens
Buffalo supermarket, site of mass shooting, reopens
John Normile/Getty Images

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where a deadly mass shooting occurred in May is officially reopening Friday after extensive renovations.

The Tops Friendly supermarket was closed for months as the site of an active law enforcement investigation into the shooting that killed 10 people and injured three more.

An 18-year-old white male, who has now been indicted on federal hate crime charges, allegedly opened fire in what authorities say was a racially motivated attack. All 10 of those who died were Black.

The store has undergone renovations in the aftermath of the attack, in which the suspected gunman fired more than 60 shots from a high-powered, AR-15-style rifle.

The Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue was a lifeline in the predominantly Black community. It served as the area’s lone grocery store, in a neighborhood struggling under years of historic segregation and divestment.

“We understand the important role this store plays in this community and we are committed to reopening our Jefferson avenue location in the right way at the right time, with the best in class amenities that you see in all of our stores,” Tops Friendly Markets stated in a press release in late May.

On Thursday, Tops representatives and community leaders held a prayer service and a moment of silence to honor the victims, store workers and community members affected by the shooting.

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Buffalo supermarket reopens, while community ‘food desert’ concerns remain

Buffalo supermarket reopens, while community ‘food desert’ concerns remain
Buffalo supermarket reopens, while community ‘food desert’ concerns remain
John Normile/Getty Images

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — When the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue shut down after the Buffalo mass shooting, the community lost its only grocery store — a lifeline in a predominantly Black neighborhood that fought for years to obtain access to affordable and quality fresh food.

Two months after the shooting, the store is opening its doors again to the public on Friday, but the prospect of returning to the site of the massacre has been difficult for the community. With no other grocery store in the area, some have no choice.

Pastor Dwayne Jones was at his church, Mount Aaron Missionary Baptist Church, when the shooting occurred less than half a mile away. Jones, a developer who has spearheaded projects across the city to provide affordable housing to the community, said that the Tops should open only “temporarily” while they build a grocery store at a new location.

“[It] has been very traumatic to the congregation, to the community, to people — seeing those bodies come out of their Tops,” Jones said.

Ten Black people were shot and killed at the Tops by a white teenager in an alleged racially motivated shooting on May 14. The victims included four grocery store employees as well as six customers, several of them regulars at the store, according to the Buffalo Police Department and those who knew them.

Jones leads a congregation of 300 people at his church where one of the shooting victims, 63 year-old Geraldine Talley, was a member and was buried on church grounds.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of questions. Where do we go from here? How do we trust people that don’t look like us in the community? I wouldn’t say it’s healing, but it’s trying to get through the traumatic part before we get to the healing.”

Jamil Crews, a community leader and organizer who grew up in the East Buffalo neighborhood, said he understands why some don’t want to go back to the Tops and if there was another “viable option” in the community, he also wouldn’t want it to reopen.

“I saw the full video of [the shooting] – unedited, just raw, unedited, and it completely broke me,” Crews, who runs a marketing business located a few hundred feet away from the Tops, told ABC News on Wednesday.

But for many people, he said, “this is the only resource they have in that community, so they need it.”

Crews said he and some of his fraternity brothers will be at the reopening Friday to help elderly people with their groceries and send a message that “it’s safe to come back.”

Community members, store workers and Tops executives gathered on Thursday afternoon for a prayer service and a moment of silence to mark the two-month anniversary of the shooting and honor the victims ahead of the store reopening.

The company said in a statement the store “will quietly and respectfully reopen to the public.”

Regular shoppers, a retired police officer: Remembering the victims of the Buffalo shooting
Asked about relocating, Tops Friendly Markets President John Persons said at a press conference in June that it would take two to three years to do so, according to Buffalo ABC affiliate WKBW.

According to Persons, who spoke at the rededication of the store on Thursday, about 75% of the employees who worked at the Jefferson Avenue store at the time of the shooting have returned to work, which he said is “a testament to their resiliency.”

Persons said in June that employees who don’t feel comfortable returning have the option of working at other branches. According to the franchise’s website, Tops Friendly Markets operates 150 stores across Pennsylvania, Vermont and New York, with seven locations in Buffalo.

Persons also said the store will undergo extensive renovations and remodeling and when it reopens, it will have a different look and feel.

The remodeled store “will provide more space for produce, organic options, fresh foods, personal care products and, importantly, community collaborations for nutrition education and health screenings,” Persons said Thursday.

“It will become an ever greater resource to combat local food insecurity and support health and wellness,” he added.

Following the shooting, the closure of the Tops supermarket underscored the long-standing divestment in East Buffalo that led to the predominantly-Black area to become a “food desert.”

Food deserts are when households lack access to a market because they live beyond walking distance and don’t have a personal vehicle, translating to overall food insecurity, Andre Perry, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the book “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities,” told ABC News, adding that Black households are more than two times likely to be food insecure than the national average.

Perry attributes practices such as redlining as a key factor that contributed to the lack of food access. Redlining refers to the practice of withholding services — such as providing housing subsidies — from low-income or minority communities.

“We know that in order to get a supermarket there, there are models created largely around density, around buying power and a number of other factors that really punish poor communities, low income communities and rural communities for not having wealth,” Perry said.

He added, “When people look at black communities, there’s a dim view. Corporations don’t see the potential. They don’t see the value in Black communities, by and large. And that is certainly the case in places like Buffalo.”

Community leaders and city officials, including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown who was a council member at the time of the store’s opening, advocated and lobbied for a supermarket. When Tops Friendly Market opened in 2003, it became a source of pride for the community.

“There was a significant effort to bring a supermarket chain to the community, but markets refused to come in and refused to provide support for the community,” Brown told ABC News, adding that he “reached out directly to supermarket chains and convinced Tops to come to the community.”

Crews said he still remembers what it was like before the Tops opened its doors when the area was a food desert, with the nearest grocery store more than 3 miles away.

Tops’ opening, he said, “was a big deal because it’s like, finally we have something where we can have access to the fresh fruits and vegetables and we don’t have to rely on like the secondhand stuff or the powdered milk.”

Following the shooting, the store was inaccessible as a crime scene in an active investigation.

While the store was closed, community leaders like Crews worked to make sure people still had access to fresh food. Advocates planned food drives across the city, buses provided free transportation to neighboring grocery stores and volunteers worked to distribute donated hot meals and groceries to East Buffalo families.

“The whole community kind of rallied together,” Crews said.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Tops Friendly Markets partnered with the National Compassion Fund to establish the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund to provide direct financial assistance to family members of the deceased and those impacted by the tragedy. As of Thursday morning, the fund received more than $4.26 million in donations, including a $500,000 donation from Tops Markets.

Jones said his mission is to meet with city officials to advocate for a “full-sized” grocery store to be built at a new location because even before the shooting, the Tops “wasn’t good enough.”

According to Jones, the grocery store is smaller than others across the city and having only one option speaks to years of divestment, redlining and systemic racism in the predominantly Black community in East Buffalo.

Pointing to the plan to demolish Robb Elementary School — the site of the mass shooting that left 19 dead in Uvalde, Texas — Jones said he believes the city should demolish the Tops building and the site should become a memorial to those who were killed.

“They’re going to build a new school because they don’t want to send the kids or the community back into somewhere that was traumatized,” Jones said, reflecting on his own trip to Uvalde, where he met with families of the victims.

“I think we need to have that same compassion in Buffalo, New York,” he said.

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Ivana Trump, ex-wife of former President Trump, dies at age 73

Ivana Trump, ex-wife of former President Trump, dies at age 73
Ivana Trump, ex-wife of former President Trump, dies at age 73
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images, FILE

(NEW YORK, NY) — Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of former President Donald Trump, has died at age 73, the family told ABC News.

The former president said she died at her home in New York City.

Ivana Trump was Donald Trump’s first wife. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump.

“Our mother was an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend,” the Trump family said in a statement.

“Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination,” the family said. “She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.”

Manhattan paramedics, responding to a call for cardiac arrest, found a 73-year-old woman in the Upper East Side apartment where Ivana Trump lived just after 12:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the FDNY. She was pronounced dead at the scene, the NYPD said.

In a statement on his platform Truth Social, the former president remembered Ivana as a “wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.”

“Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric,” he wrote. “She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her.”

Ivana Trump, born Ivana Marie Zelníčková, grew up under communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia. She left in the 1970s and married Donald Trump in 1977.

She worked for years in Trump’s business empire as a senior executive. She was appointed CEO of Trump’s Castle, one of his hotel casinos in Atlantic City, and helped design interiors for the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower. She also authored multiple bestselling books and created her own clothing line.

“No matter how busy I was, I had breakfast with my children every day. I sat with them at dinner every night and helped them with their homework (I loved algebra) before going out in a Versace gown to a rubber-chicken charity event,” Ivana Trump wrote in her memoir, “Raising Trump.” “The kids and I celebrated, traveled, and grieved together. Our bond was, and is, our most valuable possession.”

Ivana and Trump divorced in 1992. Their marriage dissolved amid revelations that the former president was having an affair with Marla Maples, who would become his second wife.

In a 2017 interview with ABC News’ Amy Robach, Ivana Trump said she had forgiven her former husband. She also described the formative years of raising her children with Donald Trump.

“He was a loving father, don’t get me wrong, and he was a good provider, but he was not the father which would take a stroll and go to the Central Park or go play to baseball with them or something,” she said. She added, when they “were about 18-years-old,” “he could communicate with them, because he could start to talk business with them.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Tot among 5 children wounded in 2 quadruple shootings in Philadelphia

Tot among 5 children wounded in 2 quadruple shootings in Philadelphia
Tot among 5 children wounded in 2 quadruple shootings in Philadelphia
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

(PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA) — Five children, including a toddler, were wounded in two quadruple shootings that erupted overnight in Philadelphia, according to police.

At least three adults, including a woman believed to be the toddler’s mother, were critically injured in the shootings, authorities said.

The first shooting unfolded about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in West Philadelphia, when at least one shooter opened fire on a Kia SUV occupied by two women and the two young children, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said during a news conference.

Small said 10 shots were fired at the parked vehicle, critically injuring the two women in the front seat and injuring the toddler, a 2-year-old boy, sitting next to his big brother in the backseat. He said the toddler was shot in the leg, while a woman in the driver’s seat, believed to be the child’s mother, was shot in the head and critically injured.

The other woman seated in the front passenger seat was also critically wounded, Small said. He said a 26-year-old man believed to have been standing outside the vehicle when the barrage of shots were fired was hit in the leg by a bullet and taken to a hospital in critical condition.

“In this Kia, in addition to the three victims, there was a 6-year-old boy also in the backseat,” Small said. “He’s lucky since this vehicle was hit 10 times by gunfire and three of the other passengers were all struck by gunfire.”

Investigators believe that following the shooting, the driver of the SUV drove about a block before stopping, according to Small.

No arrests have been announced in the shooting and a motive was under investigation.

“We don’t know if somebody was intentionally firing shots at this vehicle or if it was hit by stray gunfire, but the vehicle clearly has 10 bullet holes in it,” Small said.

Around 2 p.m. Thursday, four children were shot in front of an apartment building in North Philadelphia, police said. The shooting occurred about two blocks from the Edgar Allan Poe national historic site.

Police officers responding to calls of numerous shots fired, found the wounded victims — a 13-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — in a courtyard of the apartment complex, authorities said.

Small said at least 21 shots were fired in the direction of the children, but it was unclear if they were the targets of the shootings.

The two girls were both shot in the face and were taken to a hospital in serious condition, police said. The two boys were hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds to their legs and arms, police said.

Officers recovered a revolver at the scene, but it was not immediately clear if it was used in the shooting, police said.

The episode came as a 10 p.m. summer curfew the city recently imposed on young people under the age of 18 was in effect. The curfew was enacted by city leaders in an attempt to protect children against gun violence. But Small said two of the children were standing just outside their apartments when they were shot and two others were friends.

“They were just a few feet from the front door on the courtyard, right in front of the house where two of the victims lived,” Small said. “The other two we believe were just visiting, they were friends, when someone fired at least 21 shots in the direction of these teenagers, striking all four.”

The two shootings occurred amid a violent streak on the streets of Philadelphia, including a June 4 mass shooting that left three people dead and 11 injured in the city’s South Street entertainment district.

The Philadelphia police department’s most recent crime statistics show that as of July 10 there have been 2,233 shooting incidents in the city this year, a 6.9% increase from the same period in 2021.

As of Wednesday, the city had recorded 290 homicides, 2% fewer than at this time last year, the statistics show. Philadelphia had 562 homicides in 2021, breaking a record set in 2020.

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Officers killed by gun violence up in 2022, overall number of officers killed in line of duty down 30%: Report

Officers killed by gun violence up in 2022, overall number of officers killed in line of duty down 30%: Report
Officers killed by gun violence up in 2022, overall number of officers killed in line of duty down 30%: Report
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

(NEW YORK, NY) — The number of police officers who died in the line of duty decreased by over 30% over the first six months of this year compared to 2021, but the number of officers killed by gun deaths increased by nearly 20%, according to a new report released Thursday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The numbers, part of the organization’s mid-year report on all officer fatalities, found that, so far this year, 129 federal state, tribal and local officers died in the line of duty, compared to 188 over the same time period last year.

The organization says the decrease is almost entirely due to a reduction in COVID-19 deaths but the virus continues to be the biggest killer of law enforcement in 2022, with 54 officers losing their lives because of it, compared to 98 at the same time last year.

Thirty-three officers died from gun deaths in 2022 compared to 28 during the previous year at the same time.

Sgt. Joshua Caudell, a K-9 officer with the Arkansas Department of Corrections was one of the officers shot and killed.

The family of the nine-year police officer called his death “devastating” according to local reports.

NLEOMF says the most of the gun-related deaths were carried out with handguns, and involved domestic disturbances. The month of June saw most gun violence with 12 officer deaths.

Traffic deaths, the group said, are also down 9%, while automobile crashes are up.

“Of the 31 traffic-related fatalities, 19 were automobile crashes and 1 was a motorcycle crash,” the report says. “During the same time period last year, 13 officers were killed in automobile crashes and three died in motorcycle crashes.

The 20 total crashes over the first six months of 2022 represent a 25% increase compared to 16 in the same time period in 2021.”

The report found that 53 were city officers, 41 were from sheriff’s offices and 19 were from state police agencies.

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Buffalo mass shooting: Grand jury indicts suspect on federal hate crime charges

Buffalo mass shooting: Grand jury indicts suspect on federal hate crime charges
Buffalo mass shooting: Grand jury indicts suspect on federal hate crime charges
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE

(BUFFALO, NY) — A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging the alleged Buffalo, New York, mass shooter with federal hate crimes.

Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of storming a Tops grocery store on May 14 and gunning down 10 people, all of whom were Black, in an alleged hate crime.

At one point, Gendron aimed his Bushmaster XM rifle at a white Tops employee, who was shot in the leg and injured, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters last month. Gendron allegedly apologized to him before continuing the attack, Garland said.

The federal hate crime charges were announced last month.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Everyone accounted for in wake of Virginia flooding

Everyone accounted for in wake of Virginia flooding
Everyone accounted for in wake of Virginia flooding
BanksPhotos/Getty Images, FILE

(BUCHANAN COUNTY, Va.) — Everyone has been accounted for in Buchanan County, Virginia, on Thursday after a severe storm struck the area, bringing heavy rain and flooding, officials said.

At the height of the flooding, 44 people were unaccounted for on Wednesday. Floodwaters are now receding, said authorities in Buchanan County, which sits at the borders of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.

There are no reports of deaths or injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

The flooding came after 4 to 6 inches of rain pounded the area within hours Tuesday night. Some spots reported 3 inches of rain in just 90 minutes. A frontal system stalled over the region, which can produce copious amounts of rain in a very short period of time.

The damage spreads across about 10 miles, officials said, adding that the worst impact was downstream of where several streams join together.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has declared a state of emergency.

“I want Virginians in Buchanan County to know that we are making every resource available to help those impacted by this storm. As we continue to assess the situation, I want to thank our first responders and the personnel on the ground for providing assistance with our ongoing operations,” he said in a statement.

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