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(ALTADENA, Calif.) — The daughter of a man who died in California Highway Patrol custody as officers tried to take a blood sample is speaking out about the incident and calling for justice for her father.

Edward Bronstein died on March 31, 2020, after the California Highway Patrol pulled him over for a traffic stop. He was taken into custody and brought to CHP’s Altadena Station, where officers attempted to take a blood sample. According to reports, he had passed a Breathalyzer test but police wanted a blood sample because they believed he was under the influence of drugs.

Bronstein initially did not comply with a request to have his blood taken, which Bronstein’s daughter, Brianna Palomino, said she believes is because he had a fear of needles. In the video, officers can be seen holding him down as he shouts, “I can’t breathe.”

CHP officers do not wear body cameras so the video appears to have been taken by a handheld camera or cellphone.

Bronstein lost consciousness and was pronounced dead later that morning.

“I felt for him in that moment,” Palomino said. “He begged everyone, all the officers, to stop and do something. He couldn’t breathe. I wished that I was there to say something or do something to stop this. It was very difficult to watch as his daughter. It’s very heartbreaking.”

In an autopsy provided by the family’s lawyer, the LA coroner’s office ascribed the death to acute methamphetamine intoxication during restraint by law enforcement but wrote the manner of death was undetermined.

The video from his death was released Tuesday as part of the family’s lawsuit against the CHP filed in November 2020.

“I am definitely happy that it’s out there now so that people can see the truth and so that this story is out there and we’re getting lots of support from it,” Palomino said.

The family has sued the CHP for wrongful death, alleging the use of force was “excessive and objectively unreasonable under the circumstances” and saying Bronstein was “unarmed, restrained, and surrounded by uniformed peace officers.” They are seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.

In the footage, Bronstein is initially resistant to the blood test before saying multiple times, “I’ll do it willingly, I’ll do it willingly. I promise.”

“Mr. Bronstein did say on the video before they smothered him — all those officers — that he would willingly [do a] blood draw. He said it two or three times,” Michael Carrillo, the family’s lawyer, told ABC News. “They ignored that and they still brutalized him, even though he was willing to have the blood drawn. And so the next step now is to depose these officers.”

Officers are seen in the footage continuing to hold him down while one can be heard saying, “It’s too late.”

“Before I saw the video, and I saw that there was lack of compliance, it was very difficult for me to process in my head because my dad is not one to fight,” Palomino told ABC News. “So when I did see the video, he looks scared in the beginning. He actually began to cry. That was hesitation from his fear of needles. So that was difficult to watch. He was at a vulnerable state. And the world got to see that.”

Bronstein’s death came two months before George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked a racial awakening in America.

Bronstein, like Floyd, was heard repeating “I can’t breathe” in the video.

In the video, officers can be seen shaking Bronstein and trying to find a pulse, shouting “wake up” after he is unresponsive. A second video shows officers trying to “get some air in him,” as one officer says in the footage.

Bronstein’s death is currently under investigation and the LA County District Attorney’s Office said the conduct of the officers is “under review.”

The CHP has not commented on the case, citing the pending lawsuit.

Palomino said she hopes the officers will be held accountable.

“I would like to see the officers be prosecuted,” she said. “I don’t feel like they deserve a position in law enforcement for their carelessness and lack of training. … That’s what I would like to see.”

“You can’t let a human being die in front of your eyes caused by your own actions,” Palomino added. “He was amazing. … What I miss about him [is] just hearing his voice, feeling his hugs, you know, the comfort of a dad is something you just can’t replace.”

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(EASTLAND COUNTY, Texas) — A sheriff’s deputy has died trying to help people flee devastating wildfires in Texas, officials said.

Firefighters have been working to contain a sprawling complex in central West Texas that has grown to more than 45,000 acres in Eastland County and several neighboring counties.

Eastland County Deputy Barbara Fenley lost her life while helping to save people as the Eastland Complex swept through the area Thursday night, authorities said.

Fenley was going door to door to evacuate people when the fires spread into Carbon on Thursday, according to a statement from the Eastland County Sheriff’s Office shared by Eastland County Today.

“With the extreme deteriorating conditions and low visibility from smoke, Sgt. Fenley ran off the roadway and was engulfed in the fire,” the statement said. “She will be deeply missed.”

Fenley, 51, had been a deputy with the sheriff’s office since 2013, having previously served as the chief of police in Gorman, Texas. She is survived by her husband and three children.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott commemorated the loss at the top of a press briefing on the wildfires Friday evening at the Eastland Fire Department.

“We are sorrowful for her loss of life, but as a state, we have great appreciation for her service, for stepping up, for doing what Texas law enforcement officials do every single day,” Abbott said. “They put their lives on the line to preserve and to protect their communities. And that’s exactly what she did.”

Flags were lowered to half-staff in Eastland in honor of Fenley, who will be officially honored at a later date, Abbott said.

“She paid the ultimate sacrifice just to help people out, and I think that’s the biggest thing that’d I like people to know,” her son, Jon Fenley, told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA in an emotional interview.

The deputy was fondly remembered by her law enforcement colleagues.

JUST IN: #Eastland County Deputy Barbara Fenley was killed while trying to rescue residents from the fires burning through that area last night—multiple law enforcement agencies report.

Below is a photo being shared by those agencies as they salute her service.

(@wfaa) pic.twitter.com/mazHxGQEG2

— Matt Howerton (@HowertonNews) March 18, 2022

“It is with very heavy hearts that today we learned of the death of one [of] our Eastland County Deputies who put it all on the line last night trying to save people from the horrible fires,” the Cisco Police Department said in a statement Friday. “Our sister Barbara Fenley will be deeply missed. She was a special servant and an attribute to our profession. We will kneel in prayer for her family, friends and colleagues as they mourn.”

The Lubbock Police Department offered its “deepest condolences” to the Eastland County Sheriff’s Office.

“Fenley gave her life trying to evacuate citizens from the Eastland Complex fires, which first-responders in the area are still battling,” the department said in a statement. “Thank you for your service, Deputy Fenley, we’ll take it from here.”

Fenley was found Friday morning in the town of Carbon, which has been devastated by the fires, officials said.

“It looks like some kind of lunar landscape,” Eastland County Judge Rex Fields told reporters Friday. “It’s just an amazing amount of devastation.”

Fields said they haven’t found anyone else who is missing, and that first responders will do a “more intensive sweep” with canines in the town.

Four wildfires that ignited Wednesday and Thursday combined into the Eastland Complex, which as of Friday night was estimated to have burned 45,383 acres and was 15% contained.

“One message that I would like to exaggerate and express is that we are not out of danger yet for our high hazard fire risk,” Eastland County Fire Chief Joe Williamson said during Friday’s briefing.

Dry, windy conditions helped fuel the complex and hinder the air response to fight the complex, which was 13,000 acres by Thursday evening.

At least 48 fire departments from 22 different counties across the state have responded to help fight the wildfires, Abbott said.

“When you have a fire this large in this many different areas, you need all the help that you can get,” the governor said.

The wildfires have destroyed at least 50 homes in Eastland, Brown and Comanche counties, Abbott said.

“Probably as we are able to better surveil damages here in the coming days, we will find more than that,” he said, warning that there is ongoing danger due to the dry and windy conditions.

Abbott said Friday he will sign a disaster proclamation to assist 11 counties that are either currently affected or that may be impacted by wildfires.

In addition to the Eastland Complex, first responders are working to contain three other active fires in Reagan, Sterling and Runnels counties.

ABC News’ Mike Noble contributed to this report.

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(FERNLEY, Nev.) — Nearly a week after authorities believe a Nevada teenager was possibly kidnapped from a parking lot in her own car, the search for the missing person and a vehicle of interest continue.

Naomi Irion, 18, was last seen inside her car on March 12 around 5 a.m. in the parking lot of a Walmart in Fernley, Nevada, outside Reno, according to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.

Surveillance video captured a man getting into the driver’s seat of her car and leaving in an unknown direction with Irion in the passenger seat, said the sheriff’s office, which has characterized her disappearance as “suspicious in nature.”

Irion was sitting in the driver’s seat, but the suspect “did say or do something to Naomi to make her move over,” her brother, Casey Valley, who said he has seen the video, told reporters at a press briefing Thursday.

Irion was waiting for a shuttle bus Saturday morning to take her to her job at Panasonic Energy of North America in the Reno area, according to the Missing Persons Advocacy Network.

Valley, who lives with Irion, reported her missing on Sunday when she never came home from work. “I knew something was wrong,” he said.

Irion’s cellphone was last pinged in the area of the Walmart, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies found her car, a 1992 Mercury Sable, on Tuesday in an industrial park about a mile from the Walmart without her in it, the sheriff’s office said.

“Evidence suggesting Naomi’s disappearance is criminal in nature was located in the vehicle,” the sheriff’s office said, but did not provide any further details.

Investigators have identified a Chevrolet pickup truck whose driver they believe may have a “direct connection” to her current whereabouts, the sheriff’s office said.

“We’re making a plea to the public right now to locate our person of interest vehicle,” Lyon County Sheriff Frank Hunewill said Thursday.

The sheriff’s office released a photo of the vehicle — described as a dark 2020 or newer Chevrolet 2500 High Country 4-door pickup truck — on social media. It has also released the last known images of Irion, taken from surveillance footage the morning she went missing, as well as images from video surveillance that showed the suspect from the back with a hood pulled up over his head.

The surveillance video captured the suspect walking from a nearby homeless encampment, though it’s unclear if he is a person experiencing homelessness, Hunewill said.

The sheriff’s office said Thursday it is working with the Pyramid Lake Police Department and the FBI to search an area in neighboring Wadsworth “for any possible evidence linking to Naomi’s disappearance.”

“We’re doing all that we can do, with the resources that we’ve got — not just that we have, but Churchill County, Washoe County, everybody, FBI — to pull this together and try to get as much information as quick as we can because time is of the essence,” Hudewill said.

A community search is scheduled for Saturday morning. Sheriff’s deputies will be on hand to assist in the search.

Irion moved to Fernley in August 2021, a little over a year after her brother moved to the city from Wyoming.

The family emotionally expressed gratitude for the community’s support in the search for their sister, including posting missing person flyers.

“To the people of Fernley, the people of this area, the amount of support you have given us, it’s amazing,” Valley said. “Thank you.”

Irion’s sister, Tamara Cartwright, urged anyone who sees anything on social media that looks like Irion or the truck to contact the sheriff’s office.

“We have to stay optimistic,” she said through tears. “There’s no choice.”

Irion is 5’11” with black hair and a septum piercing. She was last seen wearing a blue Panasonic T-shirt, a gray cardigan sweater, gray pants and brown boots and carrying a black purse.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office at 775-557-5206 ext. 2, call or text Secret Witness at 775-322-4900 or go online at www.secretwitness.com.

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(NEW YORK) — Over the next few weeks, the U.S. should expect an increase in cases from the BA.2 variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News, but it may not lead to as severe a surge in hospitalizations or deaths.

“I would not be surprised if in the next few weeks we see somewhat of either a flattening of our diminution or maybe even an increase,” Fauci told ABC News’ Brad Mielke on the podcast “Start Here.”

His prediction is based on conversations with colleagues in the U.K., which is currently seeing a “blip” in cases, Fauci said. The pandemic trajectory in the U.S. has often followed the U.K. by about three weeks.

However, he added, “Their intensive care bed usage is not going up, which means they’re not seeing a blip up of severe disease.”

The BA.2 variant, a more transmissible strain of omicron, now represents around 23% of all cases in the U.S., according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And while Fauci predicted that the BA.2 variant will eventually overtake omicron as the most dominant variant, it’s not yet clear how much of a problem that will be.

“Whether or not that is going to lead to another surge, a mini surge or maybe even a moderate surge, is very unclear because there are a lot of other things that are going on right now,” Fauci said.

Similar to the U.K., much of the U.S. has recently relaxed mitigation efforts like mask mandates and requirements for proof of vaccination. At the same time, people who were vaccinated over six months ago and still haven’t gotten a booster shot, which is about half of vaccinated Americans, according to the CDC, are facing continuously waning immunity.

It’s also not yet clear how long immunity from prior infection will last, Fauci said.

Taken together, it’s why Fauci and other experts, including CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, have increasingly predicted that elderly people will need a second booster shot soon. The Food and Drug Administration began reviewing data from Pfizer on the safety and efficacy this week, and its advisory panel will debate if and when the additional booster shot is necessary in the coming weeks.

At the same time, Fauci urged Americans who haven’t yet gotten their first booster, which would be their third shot in a Pfizer or Moderna series, to do so.

A resurgence of cases could also mean Americans are asked to wear masks again, which Fauci predicted would be an uphill battle.

“From what I know about human nature, which I think is pretty much a lot, people are kind of done with COVID,” Fauci said.

Still, he defended the CDC decision to loosen its mask recommendations earlier this month by shifting to a strategy that focused more on severe outcomes, like hospitalizations and deaths, rather than on daily case spread.

“You can go ahead and continue to tiptoe towards normality, which is what we’re doing, but at the same time, be aware that you may have to reverse,” Fauci said.

And if the U.S. does continue to make its way back toward normal times, Fauci himself has a personal choice to consider. At 81 years old, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is “certainly” thinking about retirement.

“I have said that I would stay in what I’m doing until we get out of the pandemic phase and I think we might be there already, if we can stay in this,” Fauci said, referring to the falling cases and hospitalizations in the U.S.

“I can’t stay at this job forever. Unless my staff is gonna find me slumped over my desk one day. I’d rather not do that,” he said, laughing.

While he doesn’t currently have retirement plans, the recent hire of Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, to be White House coronavirus coordinator, could alleviate some of his pandemic response duties and give him a window.

But Fauci, who has dedicated his career to public health, primarily studying HIV and AIDS, and worked under seven U.S. presidents, said he doesn’t have any particular hobbies waiting for him in retirement.

“I, unfortunately, am somewhat of a unidimensional physician, scientist, public health person. When I do decide I’m going to step down, whenever that is, I’m going to have to figure out what it is I’m going to do,” he said.

“I’d love to spend more time with my wife and family. That would really be good.”

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(New York) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its spring 2022 outlook for the U.S. on Thursday, forecasting prolonged, persistent drought in the West and likely below-average precipitation for the second year in a row.

The NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center’s forecast predicts above average temperatures for most of the U.S. from April to June, from the Desert Southwest to the East Coast and north through the Midwest to the Canadian border.

The agency also foresees continuing or worsening drought April through June west of the Mississippi River, from Mississippi to California and north to Montana and Washington.

In the West and South, it will be drier than normal, worsening and expanding the drought. But in the East, drought that has been seen in the Southeast and parts of the Great Lakes will likely improve and end over the next few months.

“Severe to exceptional drought has persisted in some areas of the West since the summer of 2020, and drought has expanded to the southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley,” Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch of the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in a press release.

“With nearly 60% of the continental U.S. experiencing minor to exceptional drought conditions, this is the largest drought coverage we’ve seen in the U.S. since 2013,” Gottschalck added.

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(MIDLAND, TX) — A 13-year-old was at the wheel of the pickup truck that swerved in front of a van carrying the University of the Southwest’s men’s and women’s golf teams, killing nine people, including the underage driver, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Six members of the team and the head coach were killed in the crash. Two remain in critical condition at a Texas hospital.

NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg told reporters that the Dodge 2500 Ram pickup truck driven by the teen was traveling northbound near Midland, Texas, on Tuesday night when it crossed into the southbound lane and collided head on with the 17-seat passenger van carrying the golf teams. The truck’s left front tire was a spare that failed and caused the vehicle to pull hard left and cross into the opposing lane, according to the NTSB.

In addition to the 13-year-old, whose name was not released, a 38-year-old man, Henrich Siemens, was in the Dodge pickup. Both were killed, as well as the coach, Tyler James, and six golfers in the passenger van.

The players who died were identified as Maurico Sanchez, 19, of Mexico; Travis Garcia, 19, of Pleasanton, Texas; Jackson Zinn, 22, of Westminster, Colorado; Karissa Raines, 21, of Fort Stockton, Texas; Laci Stone, 18, of Nocona, Texas; and Tiago Sousa, 18, of Portugal.

The two passengers in the team van who survived the wreck, Dayton Price,19, of Mississauga, Ontario, and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ontario, remain hospitalized as of Thursday in Lubbock, Texas, according to the University of the Southwest.

Investigators were able to determine the teen was in the driver’s seat based on the size of the remains inside the truck, according to Landsberg.

Landsberg said his team is going through all of the evidence at the scene, including vehicle recorders, but it does appear that the incident was “very clearly a high speed, head-on collision.” Both vehicles burst into flames after the crash.

“We have literally thousands of pictures that were taken by the various first responders, and there is no question about the force of impact,” he said.

Landsberg added that “quite a number of the bus passengers were not wearing seatbelts,” during the incident.

The NTSB will release a preliminary report on its investigation in two to three weeks, Landsberg said.

Ryan Tipton, the provost of the University of the Southwest, provided an update on the two injured students during a news conference Thursday and said the school would be supporting them during their long journey.

“Every day is a game of inches, and every hour is one step closer to another day,” he said.

Tipton said most students are off campus for spring break but the school is planning to hold a memorial service in honor of those who died when classes resume.

“We are a family of Mustangs,” he said, referring to the school’s mascot. “We’ve run as one, we run together and [when] one of us is hurting, all of us are hurting.”

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(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — Two people are dead and another two injured after a shooting on a public transit bus in Florida, police said.

Another three people were injured in a car crash connected to the incident in Fort Lauderdale Thursday afternoon.

The shooting occurred around 3:25 p.m. on a Broward County Transit bus. The bus driver heard “several gunshots” and pulled into the parking lot of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, according to acting Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Luis Alvarez.

“The bus driver’s quick actions to pull into the police station saved lives,” Alvarez said at a briefing.

The driver forced the bus past another vehicle to get into the parking lot, resulting in the car crash, the chief said. The three people injured in the crash were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Within an hour of reporting the incident, police said the suspected shooter was in custody. The suspect surrendered to an officer, according to Alvarez.

“We do not believe there to be any further threat to the public,” the Fort Lauderdale Police Department said on Twitter.

The motive is unclear at this time.

All witnesses are being questioned as part of the investigation, police said.

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

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(DETROIT) — A federal judge in Michigan’s Eastern District Court says she will wait to decide whether former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and four others will have to appear before a jury to testify in a civil lawsuit connected to the Flint water crisis.

U.S District Court Judge Judith Levy heard arguments from attorneys representing Snyder, his former aide Rich Baird, Howard Croft, the former director for Flint’s Department of Public Works, and former emergency managers, Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Early, who made their cases in a motion hearing Tuesday to halt subpoenas issued to their clients.

Nine former state officials were indicted on Jan. 14, 2021, for a total of 42 counts of charges related to the Flint water crisis, including Snyder who is facing two misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty, which he has denied. Croft was charged with willful neglect of duty. Baird received felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, official misconduct and extortion. Earley and Ambrose were charged with several counts of misconduct in office.

The former state officials have pleaded not guilty to their respective charges and are potential witnesses in a civil trial against two engineering companies.

The five defendants answered questions in videotaped depositions made in 2020 before they were charged. While those taped depositions could be played before a jury in the civil trial against Lockwood, Andrews & Newman (LAN) and Veolia North America (VAN), their attorneys argued they should not be forced to testify beyond that to prevent potential incrimination.

Lockwood, Andrews & Newman and Veolia North America, two contracted engineering firms that reviewed Flint’s water system, are being sued by four children who were exposed to lead contamination due to the Michigan city’s tainted drinking water. The lawsuit claims the engineering firms committed professional negligence for adequately advising city officials and not ensure the water being pulled from the Flint River was properly treated. Both LAN and VNA deny any wrongdoing, citing the city’s and state’s efforts to cut costs as the culprit behind the lead contamination.

The engineering firms were not a part of last year’s $626 million settlement litigation involving damage claims against the state of Michigan, the city of Flint, Rowe Professional services and McLaren Flint Hospital.

This latest trial will test the firms’ potential liability and could influence other pending litigations. The civil trial started on Feb. 28 and is expected to continue for several more weeks.

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(NEW YORK) — Since November, at least four school shootings had an alarming connection to law enforcement and activists alike; the suspected shooters used a “ghost gun.”

A “ghost gun” is a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace, which experts warn are becoming increasingly dangerous.

“When we first heard about these weapons, we thought anyone can get them, even a kid. It’s not a hypothetical anymore,” Alex McCourt, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy, told ABC News.

McCourt, law enforcement offices and other experts who have been studying the proliferation of “ghost guns” told ABC News this trend is likely to continue beyond the school setting unless policymakers take action.

There are two types of weapons that fall under the ghost gun moniker, according to McCourt.

The first is a plastic gun that can be made with a 3D printer and usually fires one bullet.

The second version, which he said has been increasingly found at crime scenes, is do-it-yourself gun assembly kits that include all the parts of a gun, but without serial numbers or specific components. McCourt said these homemade guns bypass federal laws requiring registration and tracing.

Due to loopholes in federal gun laws, the kits are not considered firearms because they are missing specific completed components. In addition, under current laws, users aren’t allowed to register their constructed weapons with the federal government.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told ABC News that the number of “privately made firearms” or PMF recovered from crime scenes by law enforcement has increased over the years. In 2016, law enforcement agencies across the country confiscated 1,750 PMFs from crime scenes, and the number jumped to 8,712 in 2020, according to the agency.

“From Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, there were approximately 23,906 suspected PMFs reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes, including 325 homicides or attempted homicides,” ATF spokeswoman Carolyn Gwathmey said in a statement.

Gwathmey said the data might be undercounted as not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their PMF and “ghost gun” numbers to the federal government.

Legal loopholes allow the “ghost gun” kits to be sold online, and all it takes is common house tools to construct in under half an hour, McCourt said.

“It’s much less complicated than you might think,” he said. “If you can put together IKEA furniture, you can assemble these weapons.”

Rob Wilcox, the federal legal director at Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit gun safety organization, told ABC News there are several online sites that not only sell the “ghost gun” kits but also provide step-by-step instructions to customers of any age without any oversight or background check. Wilcox said even though the federal government has limited data on these online marketplaces, his group’s research has found that the number of Internet-based “ghost gun” retailers has been increasing over the years.

“You can ship it to a place where there is no watchful eye,” he said.

The weapons have recently made their way into school grounds.

On Nov. 29, a 15-year-old student allegedly shot and wounded a 16-year-old classmate with a “ghost gun” at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix, according to the Phoenix Police Department. The investigation is ongoing, a police spokeswoman told ABC News.

Steven Alston Jr., a 17-year-old student at Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, allegedly shot and critically wounded a 15-year-old classmate on Jan. 21, during a dispute, police said. Investigators said Alston, who is being tried as an adult with attempted second-degree murder, allegedly used a “ghost gun.”

“Three different parts were literally delivered to his home,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters at a news conference days after the shooting.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, police said on Feb. 25, 14-year-old Marcos Trejo shot his classmate outside West Mesa High School during a fight over a ghost gun. Trejo has been charged with murder, police said.

The most recent incident took place on March 4, when an 18-year-old suspect used a “ghost gun” to wound two teachers and a student at Olathe East High School in Kansas, according to prosecutors. Jaylon Desean Elmore has been charged with attempted capital murder, according to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

In all of the investigations, police and prosecutors told ABC News they are still looking into how the guns got into the hands of the teen suspects and have been warning about their spread in their communities.

A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, which is investigating the Magruder High School shooting, told ABC News in a statement that “ghost guns have been recovered from five county schools since the start of the school year.”

Some states have taken legislative action against “ghost guns in light of these incidents.”

Nine states, including New York and California, have responded to the growth of “ghost guns” with laws that regulate the sales of them by requiring background checks and serial numbers for all of the components in the kits, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

New York state’s “ghost gun” regulations went into effect this fall after legislators said it saw a 479% increase in “ghost gun” seizures across the state over the last three years.

“If you can’t pass a background check to get a gun, then you shouldn’t be able to get a gun–period,” State Sen. Anna Kaplan, who introduced one of the New York bills, said in a statement last year.

Cities like Denver, San Francisco and Philadelphia have also adopted similar laws.

Some states are also considering similar legislation. For example, Maryland state lawmakers are debating a bill, SB 387, which would prohibit “a person from purchasing, receiving, selling, offering to sell, or transferring an unfinished frame or receiver.”

During a hearing last month, law enforcement groups and district attorney offices, including Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, pushed Maryland legislators to pass the bill.

“If you’re looking at an increase in violent crime across the country and in my county in particular, ghost guns are involved,” McCarthy told ABC News. “The real danger of ghost guns is really two-fold. Number one, prohibited persons, who we in Maryland have decided should not have guns, can get these guns- and number two, we’re finding increasingly they fall into the hands of children.”

Maryland Sen. Justin Ready told the Baltimore Sun before the Jan. 25 hearing that he didn’t think banning “ghost guns” would be effective because criminals would still find a way to obtain a weapon.

“I would have a lot more respect for these gun control groups if they came in strong supporting the bills cracking down on the people that commit violent acts,” Ready told the Baltimore Sun.

McCourt said lawmakers have constantly played catch up with evolving technology and these bills are a good first start, but because of the reach of online sales, the federal government needs to step in.

“Having a patchwork of state laws doesn’t do much,” he said.

Last year, the Biden administration and Justice Department proposed a new rule that would allow the ATF to redefine “firearm frame or receiver” and “frame or receiver” so the agency can regulate “ghost guns.”

The ATF is currently reviewing public comments for the proposal, according to the White House.

Wilcox said Biden’s proposal would effectively cripple the sale of “ghost guns” online and make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track the kits.

In the meantime, Wilcox said parents and caregivers need to be in frequent conversation with their children about the homemade gun kits.

“You have to know if your child is in crisis, you have to limit their access to guns,” he said. “That includes access to the sites that sell those ghost guns.”

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(KENOSHA, Wis.) — The father of a 12-year-old girl called for charges to be filed against an off-duty police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who appeared to kneel on his daughter’s neck while trying to stop a fight.

“She’s humiliated, she’s traumatized. Every day I gotta hear, ‘Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school,'” the father, Jerrel Perez, said during a press conference in Kenosha Wednesday.

“It breaks me because I wasn’t there to help her,” he added. “I felt helpless.”

Videos of the incident, which took place at Lincoln Middle School in Kenosha on March 4, were captured by students and went viral.

Perez said that after the incident took place, he thought that his daughter was trying to get out of her punishment when she complained about pain in her neck, but said that hours later he watched the video.

“I want to see this officer get charged,” Perez said, adding that his daughter is in therapy and seeing a doctor due to a neck injury.

The Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha Unified School District announced earlier this month that they have launched an investigation into the incident.

A video taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a reported fight between two students.

The 12-year-old girl, who is in the sixth grade, appears to push the officer and then he pins her to the ground and appears to kneel on her neck, according to the video. It is unclear what happened before or after.

The Kenosha Police Department released a statement on March 7 addressing the incident.

According to KPD, after a fight broke out between two students in the cafeteria during lunch, Kenosha Unified School District employees, including the off-duty officer, intervened and one staff member was injured.

“K.P.D. has watched the video clip and has seen the photo which has been widely shared on social media over the weekend. We are keenly aware of the significant sensitivity surrounding the photo. K.P.D., together with K.U.S.D. is investigating the incident in its entirety while being cautious not to make conclusions based off of a small piece of information shared on social media,” police said. “Both agencies will look to our respective policies and procedures for guidance in this circumstance. It is the highest priority of those officers who work in our schools to provide a safe and secure learning environment for our children and staff.”

The officer is a 37-year-old male with four years of service at KPD, police said, but when asked by ABC News whether the officer’s identity will be revealed, a KPD spokesman declined to comment.

Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, told ABC News on March 8 that the officer is a “part-time KUSD employee, who was hired as an off-duty Kenosha police officer,” and is “currently on a paid leave from the district.”

“We appreciate your patience as we work with the Kenosha Police Department to investigate the facts surrounding this incident,” she added.

Police did not immediately respond to a request for updates on the investigation.

Family attorney Drew DeVinney said during the press conference Wednesday that the family is going to take legal action against police and the school soon.

DeVinney disputed the allegation that the girl pushed the officer and said that she was charged with “disorderly conduct.”

Asked if the girl is facing any charges, police declined to comment.

Perez expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics, comparing the image to George Floyd — the Minnesota man who was killed in May 2020 after a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nine minutes.

Amid a national push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life-threatening situations or when a police officer has to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various neck restraints.

DeVinney said Wednesday that the police and the school have refused to share video captured on security cameras of the incident with the family.

Ruder told ABC News last week that they cannot release the footage as this is a pending investigation.

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