(NEW YORK) — It was a chaotic meteorological transition into spring as March saw the highest number of tornadoes in a single month in U.S. history.
At least 218 tornadoes occurred in March, with many of the tornadoes happening toward the end of the month, according to the National Weather Service.
On March 30, eight states in the South and Midwest were under tornado watch.
The severe weather spawned nearly 30 tornadoes and killed two people who were inside mobile homes in Washington County, Florida. Two other people inside one of the destroyed mobile homes were injured, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
A powerful EF-3 twister with winds up to 145 mph tore through Springdale, Arkansas, on March 29, injuring seven people and inflicting heavy damage to an elementary school, the NWS reported.
Earlier in the month, more than 60 tornadoes occurred across five southeastern states. A funnel cloud that caused severe damage over a 2-mile stretch in St. Bernard’s Parish, Louisiana, on March 22 killed one person and hospitalized seven others, St. Bernard’s Parish President Guy McInnis told ABC News.
That tornado was measured to be an EF-3 with winds of at least 130 mph, according to the NWS.
A tornado on March 21 killed a 73-year-old woman and injured 10 others in Grayson County, Texas, said Sarah Somers, the director of the county’s office of emergency management.
On March 5, seven people, including two children under the age of 5, were killed when a powerful EF-3 tornado ripped across central Iowa, Lucas County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Lamb told ABC News.
Up to 30 homes were destroyed in an area just north of Winterset, Iowa, announced Diogenes Ayala, the director of Madison County Emergency Management Agency, during a news conference at the time.
Even more severe weather that could conjure up more tornadoes is expected over the next several days. On Sunday and Monday, tornadoes could pop up in eastern Oklahoma, northeast Texas, southern Missouri and much of Arkansas.
On Tuesday, enhanced risks are also predicted from Iowa to Texas, with damaging winds, hail and strong tornadoes possible. That system will then shift to Arkansas and Louisiana on Wednesday.
ABC News’ Daniel Amarante and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(GRANTVILLE, Georgia) — A $15,000 reward is being offered in the search for suspects who killed the owners of a Georgia shooting range and their teen grandson during an apparent robbery in which at least 40 guns were taken, authorities said.
The triple homicide occurred at the Lock, Stock and Barrel Shooting Range in Grantville, about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta. The bodies were discovered on Friday night by Coweta County coroner Richard Hawk, the son of the slain shooting-range owners and the father of the teenager who was gunned down, police said.
“I’ve been here eight years and we’ve never had anything like this,” Grantville police Chief Steve Whitlock told ABC affiliate station WSB-TV in Atlanta. “Right now, I’m just speechless. I have a hard time talking about it because they were friends of ours. I’ve known them for a long time.”
Police identified the victims as 75-year-old Thomas Richard Hawk Sr., his 75-year-old wife, Evelyn Hawk, and their 17-year-old grandson, Luke Hawk.
Investigators suspect the killings unfolded between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday during an apparent armed robbery, according to a statement from the Grantville Police Department.
Richard Hawk went to the shooting range around 8 p.m. on Friday, discovered the bodies and called 911, police said.
In addition to the arsenal of guns stolen, the business’ security camera was also taken from the scene, police said.
Grantville police officials asked anyone who drove passed the gun range around the time of the killings to contact investigators and relay any information on what they saw, specifically what type of vehicles were parked outside.
The federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in the investigation. The Lock, Stock and Barrel Shooting range is a federal firearms licensee in Grantville, officials said.
The ATF joined the City of Grantville and the Georgia and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry, in announcing a combined reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the killings.
“ATF and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring the killer(s) to justice,” Benjamin Gibbons, special agent in charge of the Atlanta ATF field division, said in a statement. “The brutality of these senseless murders along with the fact that these killer(s) have acquired additional firearms make solving this case our top priority.”
The killings have rocked Grantville, the town of about 3,000 residents where Thomas and Evelyn Hawk lived for more than 30 years and were well-known in the community, according to friends.
“Tommy would do anything for anybody. It’s just a nice family. It’s been really hard,” said Whitlock, adding that he last spoke to the couple on Tuesday when he visited the shooting range.
The family was well known in the Coweta County community and investigators are still trying to piece together what led up to the shooting. https://t.co/NS9YZBgi5a
Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood said he was also close to the Hawk family and posted a heartfelt condolence letter on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, saying, the Coweta County Community is “forever broken and changed by the senseless and tragic event that happened in Grantville.”
“Family was taken from the Hawk family, and us, way too soon and we are left with hurt, pain, and very little answers,” Wood wrote. “I am a life-long member of Coweta and every family, especially the Hawk family, are a valuable and precious part of my life. My heart is hurting and my prayers to our God is that He is ever present right now with Richard and his family; providing peace, strength and overwhelming love from God and our community.”
Wood added, “I am also fervently praying that God will use our law enforcement community and the Coweta Community to bring justice swiftly.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jace Dulohery started school at Oklahoma Christian University in 2020, no one knew he was transgender. He had already begun to medically and socially transition, and no one questioned him living in male housing his freshman year.
However, when he opened up to a resident assistant about being trans that year, the information made its way up the administrative ladder at the school, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.
Eventually, he said he was forced to live in private housing.
“There’s just no room for a normal college experience when there’s actual discrimination happening,” Dulohery told ABC News. “This is not Christian behavior. This is not loving. This is not merciful. This is not compassionate. This is not of God. This is harmful.”
Dulohery filed a Title IX complaint about the decision to move his housing, and a Title IX panel agreed that his housing had been moved due to his gender identity. It also found that he was denied entry into a male-only social club for being transgender.
However, nothing has been resolved, Dulohery said. Instead, he said the school offered to pay for therapy.
Dulohery said the university’s legal team cited the religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, as the basis for its actions. It’s just one way that he says the school has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ people on campus.
He, other LGBTQ students and allies hope that the ongoing national debate about LGBTQ discrimination in education can push their movement forward and put an end to Title IX’s religious exemption.
Advocates say the exemption claimed by Oklahoma Christian in certain circumstances, and which is claimed by more than 100 other universities, allows schools to partake in legalized discrimination against LGBTQ people, even while federal law otherwise prohibits it.
They also say that the exemptions reinforce a particular view of Christianity that they say is not reflective of the faith as a whole.
‘Legal discrimination’
Title IX and the regulations that implement it state that religious institutions do not have to abide by the law if it would be inconsistent with the organization’s religious beliefs, according to the U.S. Department of Education. This is true even if the school has taxpayer funding.
Schools don’t have to apply for an exemption, however, however, a written claim or “request” can be submitted for assurance that the exemption will be legal and acknowledged by the DOE, according to the department. They must comply with Title IX otherwise, except for the aspects that are explicitly prohibited by their religious beliefs.
The agency can deny a school’s claim if it doesn’t believe its actions are within the religious tenets. Even if a school has a religious exemption, students can still file complaints against schools for discrimination, the education department said.
Dulohery says that the exemption allows “legal discrimination” against LGBTQ people.
There are more than 100,000 LGBTQ students attending religious colleges and universities across the U.S., according to the LGBTQ advocacy group the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP).
Oklahoma Christian has submitted a request for assurance of religious exemption under certain conditions more than once, according to the documents on the Department of Education website.
The school also filed a notice of religious exemptions for certain policies, such as housing and admissions, after the DOE clarified transgender people are protected by Title IX in 2014. Both were granted.
The letter listed passages from the Old and New testaments interpreted to be against homosexuality or transgender identities. Churches of Christ is a set of autonomous organizations that share similar beliefs about Christianity.
“Universally, Churches of Christ believe that all sexual relations outside of a heterosexual marriage covenant, are sin,” read the 2014 letter to the Department of Education from university President John deSteiguer.
“Churches of Christ would oppose a person’s attempt to modify his or her birth sex and present as a sex other than his or her original birth sex, and we’ll consider one who does so misguided and a disruptive presence,” deSteiguer stated.
OC does not explicitly ban LGBTQ students from attending.
Other alleged instances at Oklahoma Christian
Dulohery’s complaint is not the only instance of alleged discrimination described by students, faculty and alumni interviewed by ABC News.
At least one faculty member and one staff member say they have been fired or resigned for supporting the LGBTQ community in some fashion.
Michael O’Keefe, who was a tenured art professor at the university for about 40 years was fired after inviting a gay man, former OC professor and alumnus Scott Hale, to speak to his class in an annual speaker series.
Hale spoke about religious trauma and growing up as a gay man, according to O’Keefe, Hale and students.
He gave a trigger warning before the talk and told students they could leave at any time if they felt uncomfortable, both Hale and O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe told ABC News no students complained to him about the lecture and that he was fired less than a week after the speech.
Oklahoma Christian University declined ABC News’ request for comment on O’Keefe’s and Dulohery’s allegations.
However, in a memo to staff about O’Keefe’s firing given to ABC News, the school stated: “The employment termination process was prompted by multiple complaints from eyewitnesses or others aware of the inappropriate and graphic language of a sexual nature, and stories shared in O’Keefe’s class.”
The memo continued, “Some of the speaker’s remarks included telling the class about his history of exposing his genitals to others.”
In the letter, the university said the decision was not based on Hale’s sexual orientation.
O’Keefe and Hale both denied this to ABC News, saying that the “exposing his genitals” anecdote was taken out of context, and the speaker was discussing an incident when he was 10 years old at a slumber party. Both men said they believe O’Keefe was fired because Hale is a gay man.
O’Keefe is considering filing an appeal over his firing with the university.
A wider reckoning
The calls for change at OC are not an anomaly.
Students at Christian schools across the country recently filed a class-action suit against the U.S. Department of Education for alleged discrimination they say they have experienced as a result of religious exemptions.
The lawsuit, filed in Oregon federal court in March 2021, aims to “put an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.”
The Religious Exemption Accountability Project is behind the lawsuit.
It states that if plaintiffs win, the DOE would have to treat Title IX complaints from sexual and gender minorities at religious universities with taxpayer funding in the same manner as it does with complaints from non-religious colleges.
Its director, Paul Southwick, says it’s been a long time coming for this anger to reach a boiling point in places like OC.
“There is a significant human cost to religious exemptions,” Southwick said. “Exemptions essentially mean that no matter how great the harm is that you commit, there is no accountability for it.”
Although the DOE is the named defendant, students seeking to be part of the class action describe alleged discriminatory treatment at various Christian universities.
The lawsuit represents 33 LGBTQ students and alumni from various religious colleges and universities from across the country.
“What we see is LGBTQ+ students being sent into conversion therapy,” Southwick said. “We see students expelled, disciplined, stripped of leadership positions. We see pervasive harassment that goes unchecked” at some Christian universities.
He continued, “We see students who experience sexual assault unable to report that assault if it involves someone of the same sex or would reveal their gender identity. Because they could then be disciplined for that in the course of reporting an assault” in some cases.
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, an organization of evangelical Christian institutions, denounced the lawsuit as an infringement on religious freedoms.
“The Title IX religious exemption has proven indispensable as contemporary notions of sexuality and gender depart, often substantially, from the religious beliefs that animate every aspect of Christian campus life,” said the CCCU in a court filing to join the litigation as a defendant, since the group would be affected by the outcome.
It continued, “Removing Title IX’s religious exemption, as applied to LGBT students or otherwise, will deprive religious colleges of the oxygen that gives them life by forbidding them, on pain of losing federal assistance for their students, from teaching and expecting adherence to their core religious beliefs.”
In June 2021, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing that it would defend the DOE and the exemption. Several motions to dismiss the case have been filed.
The DOE declined ABC News’ request for comment and pointed to the DOJ’s response.
Promise to ‘end the misuse’ of exemptions
The Biden administration made a campaign promise to “end the misuse of broad exemptions to discriminate,” according to his campaign website. Those against Title IX exemptions have applauded Biden and have used it as momentum for their cause.In 2021, the DOE clarified that Title IX covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“There has been this work to try to say: to be religious, to be Christian is to be anti-LGBTQ,” said Ross Murray, a deacon and vice president of LGBTQ media watchdog GLAAD Media Institute.
He continued, “They wanted to claim a generic Christianity that they can use and mold to reinforce the existing biases and prejudices and help to bolster their discrimination.”
As OC students and faculty continue to work toward addressing allegations of discrimination on their own campus, the effort nationwide against anti-LGBTQ sentiment continues.
They say accountability will save the lives of LGBTQ students, who suffer under such policies.
“People have always been mad about the way the school has been treating them. And now inside and outside ears are listening,” Dulohery said. He said plans are in the works for in-person action against the school from students and allies alike.
“We’re gaining attention. We’re gaining traction… I really just hope they see the consequences of their actions.”
(GATESVILLE, Texas) — A woman facing execution in Texas for killing her daughter is seeking clemency, claiming she was coerced into confessing to the crime.
Paramedics were called to Melissa Lucio’s home in Harlingen, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2007, after her 2-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez was found unresponsive and not breathing. Lucio told police Mariah fell asleep and did not wake up.
Lucio said that Mariah had fallen down a steep staircase during the family’s move to a new apartment two days prior, but did not appear seriously injured, according to court records. Unable to be resuscitated, her daughter was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Hours after Mariah’s death, Lucio was interrogated by police for over five hours, according to her lawyers. She was especially vulnerable, her lawyers say, as she was grieving for her daughter, pregnant with twins at the time, and a victim of abuse and trauma throughout her life.
These conditions led her to be manipulated into admitting she caused her daughter’s death despite Lucio asserting her innocence over 100 times throughout the interrogation, according to her lawyers.
“I guess I did it,” police say Lucio told them.
Former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos, who is now serving a 13-year sentence for bribery and extortion in a case unrelated to Lucio’s, described this statement as a confession during the trial.
After the trial, in which the prosecution said that her daughter’s injuries could have only been caused by abuse, Lucio was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. Her husband and Mariah’s father, Robert Alvarez, was sentenced to four years in prison for child endangerment.
Nearly 15 years later, Lucio, 53, remains on death row at Mountain View Unit prison in Gatesville, Texas. Her execution is set to take place on April 27. She would be the first Latina to ever be executed in the state.
The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to review a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that upheld her conviction, paving the way for her execution.
The Innocence Project, a criminal justice reform nonprofit that aims to exonerate wrongly convicted persons using DNA and other evidence, joined Lucio’s legal team soon after her execution was scheduled in January.
“The Innocence Project recognized the urgency that an innocent woman was headed for execution,” Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation for the organization, told ABC News.
Potkin said Lucio’s presumed guilt “was a complete rush to judgment” spurred on by misunderstanding, a “highly manipulative and coercive” interrogation and faulty forensics.
“We’ve had her interrogation reviewed by leading experts in interrogation and false confessions. And they found that her statements are completely unreliable, that they’re a mere regurgitation of the words that the officers were feeding to her over the course of five hours,” Potkin said.
Lucio’s legal team submitted an application for clemency to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles in March of this year, arguing an unreliable confession and “unscientific, false evidence that misled the jury into believing that Mariah Alvarez must have been killed by physical abuse, when the evidence is actually consistent with a conclusion that Mariah died from medical complications after a fall” based on the declarations of various experts.
The application also states that the state medical examiner who performed Mariah’s autopsy was told that Lucio admitted to abusing the girl and was accompanied by two of the interrogating officers during the autopsy.
A juror from the trial has since expressed concerns and regret over the verdict, according to the Innocence Project.
“I think that’s really significant that, you know, the individuals who heard the evidence against Melissa feel that the new evidence is so powerful that they may have voted differently in the case, and it just underscores the need for a court to consider the new evidence of Melissa’s innocence,” Potkin said.
An Innocence Project petition calling for a stop to Lucio’s execution has surpassed its goal, having received over 185,000 signatures.
Abraham Bonowitz, co-founder and director of anti-death penalty advocacy group Death Penalty Action, said he believes that filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel’s Hulu documentary, “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” which follows Lucio as she appeals her case, speaks to her innocence. Death Penalty Action started the Free Melissa Lucio project shortly after Lucio was notified of her execution date.
“Our campaign is called Free Melissa Lucio because we don’t want to just save her, we want her out,” Bonowitz said.
Abbott’s office, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The project’s petition, asking Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz to rescind the execution, has received over 44,000 signatures.
“The ask is very specific. We’re asking the governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles and the district attorney, which are the three [political] entities that can do something about this, to watch the film…because we believe anybody that watches this film will come away at least with doubt if not being convinced of Melissa’s innocence,” Bonowitz said.
According to Bonowitz, factors like ableism and racial and socioeconomic bias in the criminal justice system pose too much of a threat to warrant the use of the death penalty.
“When you get to this point, you find there’s so many layers that most people aren’t aware of and don’t care about, frankly. They look at who’s the victim, what’s the accused accused of doing? Were they convicted? Okay, let’s kill them. And that’s as much as people want to know,” he said.
“There’s so much more to it that happens way before the crime.”
The Free Melissa Lucio project has worked closely with John Lucio, Melissa Lucio’s eldest son, as he advocates for his mother’s exoneration.
He spoke in emotional support of his mother at a press conference on Friday held by civic engagement nonprofit Somos Tejas, Texas state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado and other Texas state legislators saying that his family “hasn’t been the same” since her incarceration.
“My mother is an innocent woman. My mother was never the abusing woman — the monster that the district attorney Armando Villalobos, former district attorney, made it seem like,” John Lucio said.
“She was a good mother. She wasn’t a perfect mother, but she made sure we were taken care of,” he said.
Neave Criado who visited Melissa Lucio on death row earlier this week spoke at the conference about the bipartisan support her case has received. Eighty-three Texas representatives signed a letter asking that she be granted clemency.
“The fact that we are all here today and why almost 90 state representatives, the majority of the Texas House, have rallied behind this cause to save Melissa Lucio’s life is because of the injustices in her case. It’s because of the trauma that she has suffered all of her life,” she said.
Michelle Lucio, John’s wife who knew Melissa Lucio prior to her conviction, recalled the conversations with her during their visits in prison.
“She gets very emotional because no one believed her for so many years that she was innocent. You know? All she had was us,” she said.
“I don’t want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed,” Michelle Lucio said.
(WASHINGTON) — Two suspects have been charged with impersonating Homeland Security Investigations Agents (HSI). Authorities say they were able to dupe individuals, including Secret Service and HSI personnel who lived in the same apartment building with them, into believing their identities as federal agents for still unknown reasons.
Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali were arrested on April 6 and charged with impersonating federal law enforcement. Neither man has yet entered a plea.
These shocking charges and situation have brought out questions concerning national security, counterintelligence, ethics and the wisdom of federal agents accepting gifts from any individual, regardless of their position.
Gifting in the federal government, for all personnel, is regulated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The rules can vary from agency to agency but generally, the gifting rules are in place to prevent an individual or entity from exercising undue influence upon a federal employee for some type of benefit from the government, for official activities, not personnel.
But many have expressed particular concern with the Secret Service personnel due to their close proximity to the leaders of our government, including the president.
Generally, to work for the Secret Service in any position, an individual must be an American citizen, able to receive a security clearance, pass a background check and meet other physical requirements. The hiring process is rigorous and can typically last over a year due to the depth of the background check.
During that process, in addition to the detailed background check, the Secret Service requires both a physical screening and a polygraph test. The Secret Service is one of the only federal agencies that requires a polygraph test prior to hiring.
The background check requires an individual to provide documentation and answer questions related to every aspect of their life, from birth, through schooling, relationships and finances. These facets of life are checked against computer databases to ensure that what the individual presents is factual and accurate.
At any point along this process, whether during the background or polygraph, if unanswered questions arise, the individual may not be offered a position, which is why the Secret Service typically hires only a few hundred people each year versus the thousands of applicants.
Once hired, the screening doesn’t stop. Due to their national security work, additional security clearance screening occurs to ensure that the individual merits a top secret or better clearance, including that they have no foreign influences. If an issue arises during the security clearance check, they can be denied a clearance and potentially terminated.
Secret Service personnel are also subject to random drug screening and require five-year background updates, which re-covers some of the original background material plus any changes or addition over the previous five-year period. Additionally, the Secret Service and other federal agencies are authorized to conduct random screening of personnel.
While it is still unclear what, if any, nefarious goals of the alleged imposters had, the questions will remain. And while the FBI investigates the men who allegedly posed as federal agent, both the Secret Service and DHS Inspector General will conduct a robust investigation that will identify any potential gaps or security issues resulting from this case and mitigate them.
In 2019, the last non-pandemic year, the Secret Service conducted protective advances for over 7,721 domestic trips and traveled overseas with their protectees during 372 foreign trips with few incidents.
During the Secret Service storied history of success, if a failure does occur, the agency has always attempted to learn and adapt to become better, which is why in the 2014 US Secret Service Protective Mission Panel Report, when other agencies where asked about the Secret Service, the unanimously agreed that when it comes to protection, the Secret Service is “without peer.”
Donald J. Mihalek is an ABC News contributor, retired senior Secret Service agent and regional field training instructor who served during two presidential transitions. He was also a police officer and in the U.S. Coast Guard.
(NEW YORK) — Power was restored 90% customers in Puerto Rico as of 11 a.m. on Saturday, after a massive outage left 1.5 million customers without power, according to LUMA Energy, the company that took over transmission and distribution from the island’s power authority.
Power has been restored to 1.3 million customers, LUMA said.
LUMA said it will continue working to restore power to across Puerto Rico and asked customers to conserve their power usage on Saturday “to help reduce energy demand and support the restoration process until more generation is online.”
LUMA earlier warned that, “While electric service to parts of the island have been restored, some areas may experience temporary power loss for brief periods of time as we work to balance generation and stabilize the energy grid.”
The power outage came after a fire erupted at one of the island’s four main power plants. The exact cause of the interruption of service is under investigation, LUMA said.
“The extent of the outage has impacted each generating facility in Puerto Rico and a significant effort to restore service is underway,” LUMA said in a statement.
It will be weeks until officials know what caused the fire that knocked out power to Puerto Rico, the head of the island’s energy company told ABC News.
LUMA Energy CEO Wayne Stensby joined ABC News Live and described the electrical grid as being in “dramatically worse shape than any electric system that people in the mainland U.S.” would be serviced by.
Stensby said some of the same emergency response teams that have been brought on ahead of hurricane season are working to restore power to customers who are still in the dark.
Given how widespread the outage is, the government and the energy company said there is no timetable for full restoration.
“We are continuing to make progress in restoration but due to extensive damage at Costa Sur substation, we are not in position to provide an estimate of full restoration at this time,” LUMA said.
Public schools were closed to students on Thursday and Friday due to the outage, according to the island’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi.
Around 100,000 customers were also without water on Thursday due to the power outage, according to president of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, Doriel Pagán Crespo.
The outage also affected some traffic intersections by shutting off traffic lights, officials warned.
Only essential personnel are being summoned to central government agencies on Friday, Pierluisi said, in another tweet.
Addressing the upcoming hurricane season, Josue Colon, the executive director of the power company, said the electrical grid still needs to be reconstructed and that it would not be responsible for them to say that the island’s grid could withstand a hurricane like 2017’s category 5 Maria.
(NEW YORK) — A 17-year-old suspect was arrested early Saturday in connection with the shooting outside of a New York City high school the previous day that left one teen dead and two others injured, police said.
The unidentified suspect was located Friday night, just hours after the incident outside the South Bronx Educational Campus, and was taken into custody following a brief standoff at his home, police said.
Angellyh Yambo, 16, was killed in the shooting and two other unidentified teens were wounded, police said.
A weapon believed to be a ghost gun, a weapon that is typically sold in parts online, was found nearby the suspect’s home, according to police.
Police haven’t yet determined a motive behind the shooting. The investigation is ongoing,
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Eleven people were injured after a car crash involving multiple pedestrians and a food truck in Austin, Texas, Friday.
A car crashed into an unidentified food truck around 8:35 p.m. at 1800 Barton Springs Road in South Austin, according to Austin-Travis County EMS. Officials said two vehicles were involved in a T-bone collision, with one being pushed into a group of pedestrians at the food truck.
FINAL Major Collision involving multiple vehicles & pedestrians at 1800 Barton Springs Rd: 11 total involved: 9 patients transported (2 serious potentially life-threatening, 7 non-life-threatening, 2 no patients). MEDIA brief information to follow in a separate tweet.
Nine people were transported to the hospital, EMS said, including two people in “potentially life-threatening” condition. There were seven people transported with non-life-threatening injuries, though two had “potentially serious” injuries. Two others were treated on scene.
Six patients were taken to South Austin Medical Center, including one with life-threatening injuries and five others with non-life-threatening injuries.
Three patients were taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, including the other patient with life-threatening injuries.
Capt. Christa Stedman of the Austin-Travis County EMS said at 8:42 p.m. the first ambulances arrived and 911 calls began to flood in.
Stedman, a public information officer with the Austin-Travis County EMS, added that all of the patients involved were adults.
The drivers involved are cooperating with police.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(BOISE, Idaho) — The Idaho Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a new law that bans nearly all abortions in the state while a legal challenge plays out in court.
The court issued a stay on implementation of the bill, set to go into effect on April 22, in a ruling on Friday, more than a week after Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the restrictive abortion law.
The state has until April 28 to respond to the court.
The law bans abortions once cardiac activity in a fetus is detected, which happens at approximately six weeks of pregnancy. Many women are unaware at six weeks that they are pregnant.
The suit was filed on March 30 in Idaho’s Supreme Court on behalf of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, a health care provider who performs abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics, according to court documents.
The bill was signed by Gov. Brad Little on March 23, making Idaho the first state to model legislation after Texas’ abortion ban.
“It should be clear to everyone that the Idaho state legislature intentionally abandoned the ordinary rule of law when they passed this six-week abortion ban. Then the governor joined their effort to deny his constituents their constitutional rights when he signed the abortion ban into law — despite his own acknowledgement that it was wrong,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a press release announcing the legal challenge.
The law would also allow the father, grandparents, siblings, uncles or aunts of the fetus to sue a medical provider that performs the procedure and collect a reward of at least $20,000 for a successful claim filed within four years of an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood.
The law’s “enforcement mechanism and substance are blatantly unconstitutional, so much so that Idaho’s Attorney General’s Office released an opinion to this effect, and the Governor emphasized similar concerns upon signing,” the lawsuit states.
In a letter to Janice McGeachin, the lieutenant governor and president of the state’s senate, Little criticized the bill, saying, “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies.”
He then added, “While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise.”
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood asked the court to rule that the bill is “unlawful and unenforceable” and forbid Idaho courts from implementing civil cases as the bill allows.
Without intervention from the court, the law would go into effect, “wreaking havoc on this State’s constitutional norms and the lives of its citizens,” according to the lawsuit.
“The abortion ban blatantly undermines patients’ right to privacy. It also improperly and illegally delegates law enforcement to private citizens, violating the separation of powers and allowing plaintiffs without injury to sue, in violation of the Idaho Constitution,” Planned Parenthood said.
Added Rebecca Gibron, the interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky: “This law is a cruel overreach by politicians so intent on controlling the lives of their constituents that they’re willing to compromise our constitutional rights and compromise our health and safety, all in order to ban abortion.”
The lawsuit requests emergency relief by April 21 to prevent the implementation of the abortion ban before it becomes law.
“Unless this abortion ban is stopped, Idahoans will watch in real time as their government strips them of the very rights they were sworn to protect. Everyone deserves to make their own decisions about their bodies, families, and lives — and we’re going to keep fighting to make sure that is a reality,” McGill Johnson said.
(NEW YORK) — Power is still out for around 850,000 customers in Puerto Rico on Friday, after a massive outage left 1.5 million customers without power, according to LUMA Energy, the company that took over transmission and distribution from the island’s power authority.
As of 12 p.m. on Friday, power was restored for around 660,000 customers. LUMA said most of the island should have power by Friday night and it expects to restore power to “more than 1 million customers during tonight.”
The power outage came after a fire erupted at one of the island’s four main power plants. The exact cause of the interruption of service is under investigation, LUMA said.
“The extent of the outage has impacted each generating facility in Puerto Rico and a significant effort to restore service is underway,” LUMA said in a statement.
Given how widespread the outage is, the government and the energy company said there is no timetable for full restoration.
“We are continuing to make progress in restoration but due to extensive damage at Costa Sur substation, we are not in position to provide an estimate of full restoration at this time,” LUMA said.
Public schools were closed to students on Thursday and Friday due to the outage, according to the island’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi.
Around 100,000 customers were also without water on Thursday due to the power outage, according to president of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, Doriel Pagán Crespo.
The outage also affected some traffic intersections by shutting off traffic lights, officials warned.
Only essential personnel are being summoned to central government agencies on Friday, Pierluisi said, in another tweet.
Addressing the upcoming hurricane season, Josue Colon, the executive director of the power company, said the electrical grid still needs to be reconstructed and that it would not be responsible for them to say that the island’s grid could withstand a hurricane like 2017’s category 5 Maria.
