(UVALDE, Texas) — The parents of victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting and other members of the community called for the resignation of embattled school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo at an emotional meeting of the Uvalde, Texas, school board Monday night.
The board’s monthly meeting came nearly a month after the attack that took the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
“Having Pete still employed, knowing he is incapable of decision-making that saves lives is terrifying,” said Brett Cross, the uncle of student Uziyah Garcia, who died in the shooting. “Innocence doesn’t hide, innocence doesn’t change its story, but innocence did die on May 24.”
Scores of law enforcement officers responded to the shooting on May 24, with 19 of them waiting 77 minutes in the hallway outside the classroom containing the gunman, after Arredondo, the incident commander, wrongly believed that the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, law enforcement has said.
“At one point or another you’re going to have to draw a line in the sand to decide if you hold one of your own accountable,” said Jesus Rizo Jr. “Pete, Mr. Arredondo, is also my friend. I’m sure we all got along with him. At one point or another, we’re going to have to decide if we hold them accountable. And I pray that you make the right decision.”
“Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” Arredondo told The Texas Tribune on June 9. “We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”
Uvalde school board meetings typically allow up to fifteen minutes total for public comment, but board members expanded the timetable for Monday’s meeting.
A number of attendees held “Fire Pete Arredondo” signs as they stood at the side of the auditorium.
Among those at the meeting was Lyliana Garcia, 16, who lost both her parents as a result of the attack. Her mother was Irma Garcia, one of the teachers who died during the shooting, and her father was Joe Garcia, who died of a heart attack two days later.
“The horrifying manner in which my mother was murdered and taken from us completely shattered our hearts, but made my dad’s stop,” Garcia said. “There shouldn’t have been a reason my mom didn’t come home that day.”
Garcia said she’s now trying to fill the shoes of both parents — a burden no one her age should have.
“The table we once sat at with absolute joy and laughter is now quiet and has two empty seats,” she said.
Uvalde School District officials have not responded to multiple questions from ABC News regarding Arredondo’s employment status.
(NEW YORK) — A family barbecue, a park gathering and a nightclub were among the settings for at least nine mass shootings that broke out across the country between Friday and early Monday, marking the fourth consecutive weekend U.S. law enforcement officers have responded to multiple incidents, each involving four or more victims shot.
The shootings this weekend have left at least six people dead and 42 injured in nine cities, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a site that tracks shootings across the country. The website defines a mass shooting as a single incident involving four or more victims, which differs from the FBI’s definition as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed.
The string of consecutive weekend mass-casualty incidents began over the Memorial Day holiday, when at least 17 shootings left a total of 13 dead and 79 injured in cities across the country. The three-day holiday was followed by a weekend that saw at least 11 mass-casualty shootings that left 17 dead and 62 injured across the nation.
Last weekend, at least 10 mass-casualty shootings nationwide killed 10 people and injured 42.
The string of deadly weekends comes in the wake of a May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that left 10 people dead and three wounded and the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
As of Monday, there have been 277 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to Gun Violence Archive.
1 killed, 8 injured in East Harlem, New York
Gunfire erupted early Monday at a park in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where police said a group of people were having a barbecue when multiple shooters opened fire.
A 21-year-old man — identified as Darius Lee, a former New York high school basketball standout and college player — was fatally shot, according to ABC New York station WABC. The New York Police Department said six additional men and two women suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the barrage of gunfire that broke out along the city’s East River at about 12:35 a.m.
Authorities believe multiple guns were used in the shooting based on the shell casings homicide detectives found at the scene. Police said one handgun was also recovered from the scene.
No arrests were immediately announced and a motive remains under investigation, although authorities said they suspect the shooting was gang-related.
Lee was a member of the Houston Baptist University basketball team.
“The loss of anyone in the HBU family is a cause for grief, but it’s especially painful when we see the death of a student, particularly when so much promise is cut off in such a violent, senseless way. We offer our prayers for Darius’s family and closest friends,” HBU President Robert B. Sloan wrote in a post on Twitter.
Teenager killed, 3 people injured in nation’s capital
A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot and three adults, including a police officer, were injured in a shooting in Washington, D.C., Sunday night, officials said.
The shooting unfolded in the Cardozo neighborhood of downtown Washington, D.C. — a popular area filled with stores, restaurants and bars.
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference the shooting erupted after police officers responded to the area to break up a fight and disperse a crowd of several hundred people gathered at what he said was an “unpermitted” Juneteenth event and music festival called “Moechella.” He said prior to the shooting, a panicked crowd began to scatter and several people were trampled.
The subsequent shooting left two adult victims and the police officer with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, police said.
The name of the teenager who was killed was not immediately released.
No arrests were announced. Police said one handgun was recovered at the scene.
South Carolina nightclub shooting leaves 2 dead, 2 injured
Two men were killed and two other people were injured when a shooting occurred early Sunday at a nightclub in Walterboro, South Carolina, police said.
The shooting broke out about 2:40 a.m. at the High Time Night Club, according to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.
“Arriving deputies secured the scene and began rendering aid to the two male victims suffering from critical gunshot wounds,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The mortally wounded men were taken to Colleton Medical Center in Walterboro, where they were both pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.
Two other victims who suffered non-life-threatening injuries arrived at the hospital in private vehicles, authorities said.
The names of the men killed were not immediately released.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
Freeway shooting in Miami injures 5
Five people were shot and wounded early Sunday when the car they were riding in on a highway in Miami was fired on at by occupants of another vehicle, according to the Miami Police Department.
Police said six people were traveling on U.S. Route 1 at about 2:30 a.m. in a four-door Nissan Altima when a vehicle pulled up alongside them and gunfire rang out, police said.
Five of the six people in the Nissan suffered gunshot wounds, police said. The victims, two males and four females, ranged in age from 16 and 22, police said.
Police said a motive for the shooting remains under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
5 shot at intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan
At least five people were injured early Sunday when a shooting erupted at an intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan, police said.
The shooting happened around 2:45 a.m. and police found multiple shell casings in the area and several cars struck by bullets, Jennifer Kalczuk, a spokesperson for the Grand Rapids Police Department, told ABC News on Monday.
Kalczuk said officers responded to a report of shots fired and found one of the victims suffering from a gunshot wound. She said four other victims, three suffering from gunshot wounds and one believed to have been hit by flying glass, were taken to a hospital in private vehicles. She said all the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
No suspects have been arrested and a motive is under investigation.
7 shot, 2 fatally, at family barbecue in San Antonio, Texas
Two men were killed and five other people were wounded Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, when a car drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on a group of people gathered outside a home for a family barbecue, police said.
The drive-by shooting unfolded at about 10 p.m.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference that 20 to 30 shots were fired in the attack.
He said the injured victims, including two women, ranged in age from 20 to mid-40s.
“A family was barbecuing out front of the house. People drove by and unloaded on them,” McManus said.
McManus said at the time of the shooting, six children were inside of the house and avoided injury.
“Fortunately, they weren’t out front,” McManus said.
He said police had responded to the same home in May when another drive-by shooting occurred there.
No arrests have been announced and a motive remains under investigation.
4 people, including a woman driving by, shot in Baltimore
Four people were injured Saturday night when a gunman walked up to them on a street and opened fire, police said.
The shooting happened around 11 p.m. in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore, according to police.
One of the shooting victims was a 21-year-old woman who was driving by when gunfire erupted, police said.
The victims, who range in age from 21 to 50, were all treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
No arrests have been announced.
Shooting at Pensacola, Florida, bar leaves 5 injured
Five people were injured when a shooting occurred at a downtown Pensacola, Florida, bar early Saturday.
The shooting erupted around 12:30 a.m. at The Pelican’s Nest bar.
“It is believed the shooting was a targeted incident, and there is no safety concerns toward the public,” the Pensacola Police Department said in a statement.
Officers responded to the bar and found three people suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot, police said. Two other shooting victims, a man and a woman, later showed up at the hospital in private vehicles.
A handgun was found by police inside the bar, but it was unclear if it was used in the shooting.
Police suspect one gunman was involved but no arrests have been made and a motive is under investigation.
5 shot in Chicago Parking lot
Five people were injured in a shooting that occurred in a parking lot in Chicago, police said.
It was the fourth straight weekend that Chicago police have responded to a mass-casualty shooting involving four or more victims.
The episode occurred around 11:45 p.m. in the Lake Meadows neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside. The victims ranged in age from 18 to 27 and all suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including one man who was shot in the chin, police said.
No arrests have been announced.
The mass-casualty shooting came amid a violent weekend in Chicago. The Chicago Police Department reported that a total of 39 people were shot in the city over the weekend, four fatally, according to ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.
(SAN DIEGO) — The FBI is looking for a man wanted in the disappearance of a woman whose remains were found in her vehicle in Tijuana last month.
The Bureau’s San Diego office asked for the public’s help on Sunday in finding 50-year-old Tyler Adams in connection to Racquel Sabean’s death.
Following an Amber Alert for Sabean’s missing 7-month-old daughter, local Mexican police detained and questioned Adams on Wednesday, but he was “uncooperative,” the FBI said in a press release.
Texas parents grateful daughter is alive after she vanished at NBA game
Sabean’s daughter was found safe and is in protective custody in Mexico. According to ABC affiliate KHON2, Adams and Sabean were in a relationship.
Adams is said to have entered the U.S. on Thursday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry under the alias “Aaron Bain.” The FBI said Adams has over a dozen aliases, including Paul Wilson Phipps, David Smith and Dominic Braun.
Immigration officials in Mexico reportedly handed Adams over to Customer and Border Protection officers at the border, according to the Baja California attorney general.
No information was provided as to how Adams escaped CBP, but the FBI was not present when the handoff between authorities happened, FBI San Diego’s Public Affairs Officer William McNamara said, according to ABC affiliate KGTV.
According to the FBI, Adams is also a fugitive out of Hawaii for escape in the second degree. The FBI describes Adams as white, 5 feet, 9 inches and weighs around 175 pounds, and has brown hair and possible swelling under his eyes.
“He should be considered dangerous; he has an extensive criminal history as it relates to fraud, multiple identities, multiple fake and stolen identities,” McNamara said.
(NEW YORK) — The summer season is in full swing as sweltering temperatures are expected to continue for millions around the country over the next several days.
On the heels of a record-breaking heat wave that brought dangerous temperatures to more than 100 million Americans, another round of scorching weather will also affect a large swath of the country this week.
The brunt of the heat will be affecting the central U.S. Monday afternoon, especially the upper Midwest, where an excessive heat warning is in effect for cities like Minneapolis and Fargo, North Dakota, and a heat advisory is in effect for regions surrounding Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Omaha, Nebraska, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Highs Monday afternoon will reach 100 degrees as far north as Minnesota, with widespread temperatures soaring into the 90s across the central U.S. Several daily record highs will be challenged in the upper Midwest, forecasts show.
On Tuesday, the solstice will mark the official start of the summer, and it will feel like it in many places throughout the country. The heat will shift farther east, with widespread highs in the 90s are expected from the South into the Midwest and some cities hitting triple digits.
Humidity is not expected to be as intense as last week’s heat wave, but heat index values will still be a few degrees higher than the air temperature, hitting the triple digits in many Midwest and Southern cities Tuesday afternoon.
After Tuesday, the heat will continue to move toward the eastern seaboard. Temperatures from Memphis to Atlanta will be near 100 degrees from the middle to end of the week.
And the blistering temperatures are likely here to stay. Forecasts indicate that above-average temperatures are favored across the southern U.S. through the end of June, meaning more heat waves are likely on the way.
(WASHINGTON) — Police are asking for the public’s help after a mass shooting broke out in Washington, D.C., killing a 15-year-old boy.
The Sunday night shooting took place during a festival called “Moechella,” which was celebrating Juneteenth, officials said.
The 15-year-old boy, identified by his first name Chase, was killed and three people, including a D.C. Metropolitan police officer, were injured, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said.
The officer is expected to be OK and the two civilians were listed in stable condition, officials said Sunday night.
No suspects are in custody, authorities said.
Police are collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses, Contee said in a statement Monday.
A reward up to $25,000 has been offered for information leading to the gunman’s arrest and conviction.
“The person who took Chase’s life and brought this violence to our community must be held accountable,” Contee said.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Traci Arway, a special education coordinator within the public school system in Columbus, Ohio, has had nightmares about having guns in her classroom.
Arway works in multiple different schools across the district, helping students with special needs, and her nightmare has just become closer to reality, she said.
Earlier this week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine passed a law that makes it easier for teachers to carry guns within schools. House Bill 99 reduces the hours of training required for teachers to carry guns from 700 to less than 24.
Her response to this decision is disgust and anger, she told ABC’s “Start Here.”
“I am having a hard time connecting the dots of how arming untrained people are going to keep people safe,” Arway said.
Governor DeWine succeeded in making it easier for teachers to carry guns in classrooms, effectively weakening the impact of a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling requiring teachers to receive extensive training.
Although the majority of states prohibit firearms in K-12 schools, teachers are currently exempt in at least nine states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Arway, who has had a history of gun violence in her family, says she chooses to keep her household “gun free.”
In regards to her classroom, “I would leave the profession if I was told I had to carry,” she said.
Working at different schools and in different classrooms on a regular basis, Arway says she takes extra precautions because she is fearful of a school shooting.
“I don’t go into a building without thinking of my exit plan,” she said. “I make sure I tell at least three different people that I’m in their building and where I’ll be in the building.”
Federally, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are moving closer to an agreement that would require enhanced states’ background checks and provide states grants to encourage the creation of ‘red flag’ laws that are triggered when supposedly dangerous individuals try to purchase guns, although the negotiations are currently stalled over a few provisions.
The policy of arming teachers has resurfaced in debates surrounding gun legislation after the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, which left 21 dead, and Buffalo, New York, which left 10 dead.
The first weekend of June saw at least 11 mass shootings across the country, leaving 17 dead and 62 injured.
“Why are we resorting to arming teachers?” said Arway. “We need to put money, resources and effort into being proactive and not reactive.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — ABC News pieced together what happened the day Salvador Ramos allegedly killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School, using maps, video evidence and information from law enforcement.
Nearly a month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers inside Robb Elementary School, shattering a West Texas community, a litany of key questions about the police response remain unanswered — and some experts say the shifting narrative from state and local leaders in the massacre’s aftermath could threaten to exacerbate the trauma for those affected.
“These types of tragedies can tear communities apart,” said John Cohen, a former senior Homeland Security official who is now an ABC News contributor. “One of the ways the healing process can begin is for the community to have a clear understanding of what happened, and of what will be done to prevent something similar from happening again.”
As families of the victims lay their loved ones to rest, residents of Uvalde continue to hope for answers. They may start to get some on Tuesday, when a Texas House panel convenes to hear testimony regarding the shooting.
Here are five questions that remain unanswered:
1) Was the door to the classroom locked?
Since the very first days after the attack, law enforcement officials have said their response was stymied by the very measure enacted to keep children safe during an active shooter event: a locked door. Officials have said that the gunman entered into the classroom and immediately locked the door behind him, keeping officers outside of the room while they waited for backup, supplies, and a key that could open the “hardened” door that was unable to be kicked in.
The gunman was left inside the classroom for 77 minutes as 19 officers waited in the hallway — and many more waited outside the building — after the incident commander wrongly believed the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, law enforcement has said.
The incident commander, Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, said in an interview that he waited in the hallway as a janitor brought dozens of keys, which he tried on an adjacent classroom door in search of a master key — but none worked. Eventually a working one came.
But now surveillance video shows that police never tried to open the door to the classroom the gunman was in, according to a report from the San Antonio Express News that has been confirmed by sources to ABC News, although ABC News did not review the footage. While the classroom doors at the school are designed to lock automatically when they close, according to the report, new evidence suggests that the door may have been unlocked the entire time, despite the police assuming it was locked.
Officers in the hallway also had access to a “crowbar-like tool” which could have opened the door regardless of whether it was locked or not, the report said.
2) Did an active shooter alert reach the Robb community?
In recent decades, with mass shootings on the rise and advances being made in technology, school administrators and law enforcement across the country have scrambled to put in place safety protocols meant to alert staff and students in real time to a possible threat.
At Robb Elementary, shortly before the gunman entered the building on the day of the shooting, a teacher used their smart phone to trigger an alert through the school’s emergency response app — called Raptor — according to the company that makes the alert system.
But whether the alert successfully reached the Robb community remains unclear. Arnulfo Reyes, a teacher inside one of the classrooms attacked by the gunman, said sometimes his Raptor app pings with alerts about nearby incidents — but that no alert came on the day of the attack.
“You could hear the gunshots, but there was no announcement,” Reyes told ABC News in an exclusive interview this month. “I didn’t get anything, and I didn’t hear anything.”
At 11:43 a.m. — ten minutes after the rampage began — Robb Elementary School posted to Facebook that the campus had gone under lockdown “due to gunshots in the area.”
3) Were officers informed of the 911 calls coming from children inside the classroom?
While officers waited outside of the classroom for 77 minutes, children who were still alive inside the adjoining classrooms the gunman had attacked were repeatedly calling 911 pleading for help, officials have said. There were multiple 911 calls made from children inside, officials have said, including one plea to “please send police now.”
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McGraw said it appeared that information may not have been relayed to officers on the ground, and Arredondo said in an interview that he was not aware of 911 calls while he waited in the hallway outside the classroom because he did not have his radio — which he said he intentionally left behind because he thought it would slow him down.
“That question will be answered,” McGraw said in the days after the shooting when asked directly if the incident commander on the ground received the 911 information. “I’m not going to share the information we have right now. Because I don’t have — I don’t have the detailed interview right now.”
Video obtained by ABC News last month taken outside Robb Elementary School as the massacre was unfolding appeared to capture a 911 dispatcher alerting officers on scene of 911 calls they had received from children inside the classroom.
4) Were responding officers appropriately trained?
Seventy-seven minutes passed from the time the gunman entered Robb Elementary until officers breached the classroom and ended his deadly siege. Law enforcement officials have since faced intense scrutiny for their failure to act faster, prompting questions about their level of preparedness.
Two months before the mass shooting, the Uvalde school district hosted an all-day training session for local police and other school-based law enforcement officers that was focused on “active shooter response.” But basic training protocols — including those involving communication channels and chain of command — went unheeded, law enforcement officials later said. A failure to secure important equipment, including shields and high-powered weapons, may have also contributed to delays.
Eventually, officers on the scene used a key retrieved from a janitor to unlock the door to the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself. Cohen, the former Homeland Security official, said the fact that officers had to resort to such a simple method of breaching the classroom after such a long period of time reflects poorly on the officers’ planning.
“When developing an emergency response plan, it is deeply troubling that basic equipment — such as keys or other breaching devices — seemed to be unavailable,” Cohen said.
5) Are law enforcement officials cooperating with the investigation?
As the probes into the police response continue, questions have arisen about whether or not Arredondo — who has emerged as a key figure in the police response — is cooperating.
Texas House Committee chair Dustin Burrows said on Friday that Arredondo had not yet agreed to testify before the committee, but on Monday he said that all law enforcement agencies have been cooperating.
“The Uvalde Police Department has been cooperative,” said Burrows. Regarding Tuesday’s hearing, he said, “We’re going to hear from another officer with the Uvalde ISD [school district]. We’re going to hear from a member of the Department of Public Safety on the ground.”
“I want to at least compliment all the law enforcement agencies for being cooperative and providing witnesses that we have asked for,” Burrows said.
On May 31, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, The Texas Department of Public Safety said that Arredondo had not responded “for days to a request for a follow up interview” as part of that agency’s investigation into police response to the massacre.
Arredondo’s attorney disputed that characterization, telling the Texas Tribune that Arredondo had participated in multiple interviews with DPS in the days following the shooting, but could not come in for another interview when they requested because he was covering shifts for other officers.
“At no time did he communicate his unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation,” Hyde said in the interview with the Texas Tribune. “His phone was flooded with calls and messages from numbers he didn’t recognize, and it’s possible he missed calls from DPS, but still maintained daily interaction by phone with DPS assisting with logistics as requested.”
(EL PASO, Texas) — Gaston spent years as a human rights lawyer in Venezuela defending the political opponents of Nicholas Maduro’s regime — mostly students jailed for speaking out against the government plagued by corruption.
Gaston was worried it was only a matter of time before he ended up in a cell himself, so he fled the country and made his way to the U.S.-Mexico border, swimming across the Rio Grande.
Gaston, whose full name is being withheld over fears for his safety, planned to surrender to border officials and seek asylum in the United States. Instead, he was arrested by troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety upon his arrival and sent to an immigration detention center.
“I presented him with my credentials. ‘Look, I’m a lawyer, a human rights defender. Here’s my badge,’” Gaston recounted in Spanish, speaking with ABC News. “And all he said to me was, ‘I have to stop you. Put your hands behind your back.’”
Gaston spent five weeks imprisoned in the detention center.
He is just one of thousands of migrants detained through Operation Lone Star, a Texas-run border security initiative created by Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021 to stem the influx of migrant traffic in the state.
The program authorizes the deployment of an estimated 10,000 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety, in addition to federal agents, to handle immigration patrol.
The operation’s goal is “to prevent the criminal activity along the border,” according to the Texas government website. But since only the federal government has the power to enforce immigration law, Texas troopers and state guardsman can only make arrests if migrants trespass onto private property.
“There wasn’t any there. No notice that said that was private property, or what,” Gaston said. “Neither that I have knocked down a wall nor that I have even penetrated a fence.”
“I can tell you that this is the most terrible discrimination that a human being deprived of his liberty can suffer,” he added.
Kristin Etter, an attorney who represented Gaston’s case against the state once he was detained, said he is one of many clients who were arrested “without probable cause,” some of whom have spent months in prisons awaiting trials, unable to afford bond.
“Texas has essentially militarized the border to make apprehensions and arrests primarily of migrants for criminal trespass offenses,” Etter said.
To date, the program has made just over 4,100 total trespassing arrests, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The strategy of expelling migrants does not appear to have curtailed immigration — but the price tag of funding the operation continues to go up with Texas taxpayers footing the bill.
Etter said Texas has spent more than $4 billion on Operation Lone Star, diverting funds from other areas in the state. And in late April, nearly $500 million in additional funding was approved by Abbott and state leadership for the program.
As Gaston’s asylum case moves through the federal courts, he said he hopes he can one day make a living for himself in the U.S. and support his family back home in Venezuela.
“It was through God’s Grace, he wanted my life to continue and help mine, to help my family, to help my country, and to stay here in the United States one way or another,” he said. “In spite of all that difference and all those events that have happened, thank God it didn’t go bad for me.”
ABC News’ Abby Cruz and Thomas Brooksbank contributed to this report.
(TRENTON, N.J.) — A wildfire in southern New Jersey has scorched at least 7,200 acres as of Monday morning, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.
New Jersey Forest Fire Service crews will continue to conduct backfiring operations throughout the day to aid in containment, according to a statement from the service posted on Facebook. The fire is 45% contained, authorities said.
There are no reported injuries at this time.
The fire spread through Wharton State Forest, leaving several trails, campgrounds and roads closed.
Eighteen structures have been threatened as of Monday morning, with local volunteer fire departments from Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean Counties performing structure protection, authorities said.
As of Sunday evening, only six structures were reported as threatened and the Paradise Lake campground was evacuated.
The wildfire has affected the Washington, Shamong, Hammonton and Mullica Townships, and has been fueled by dry and breezy conditions, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said.
The National Weather Service in the Philadelphia/Mount Holly area said the gusty conditions are expected to subside.
Batsto Village and all of its trails continue to be closed to all visitors.
Boat launches along the Mullica River, the Mullica River Trail, the Mullica River campground and the Lower Forde campground are closed.
Pinelands Adventures said it has suspended kayak and canoe trips in the area.
Route 206 from Chew Road to Stokes Road and Route 542 from Green Bank Road to Columbia Road are also closed.
Authorities first addressed the growing fire midday Sunday, where it began in a remote section of Wharton State Forest along the Mullica River.
By 7:20 p.m., the fire had expanded to 600 acres and was 10% contained.
At 10:56 p.m., authorities said the fire had reached 2,100 acres and was at 20% containment.
An average of 1,500 wildfires damage or destroy 7,000 acres of the state’s forests each year, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — According to surveillance video obtained by ABC News Louisville affiliate WHAS, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Greg Fischer, appears to fall to the ground after being hit.
The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, was assaulted over the weekend while out attending community events when he was punched by the assailant. Police are still investigating and have yet to make any arrests.
Mayor Greg Fischer was attacked while visiting Fourth Street Live, celebrating Kentuckiana Pride and Juneteenth over the busy weekend.
According to surveillance video obtained by ABC News Louisville affiliate WHAS, the mayor appears to fall to the ground after being hit. The assailant was caught fleeing in surveillance footage.
According to police, and Fischer himself, he is doing fine following the assault.
“My son, who is 30 said, ‘Dad you’re not quite an old geezer yet, but it is good to see you can still take a punch,'” Fischer said on Sunday at the Louisville Central Community Center’s Juneteenth gala. “It is an unfortunate thing. We’re living in weird times these days, so it’s just another day in the life of the mayor.”
Anyone with information can call the Louisville Metro Police Department anonymous tip line at 502-574-5673.
