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(DALLAS) — The shooting of three Korean women in a hair salon in the city’s Koreatown on Wednesday afternoon could be hate motivated, Dallas police said, and may be linked to a series of recent shootings at Asian run businesses in the city.

The shooting victims at the Hair World Salon in a historically Asian district were all Korean women — the salon owner, an employee and a customer, according to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and were transported to a local hospital, according to police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a press conference on Friday that initially police “did not have any indication that this crime was hate motivated,” but as of Friday afternoon, “that just changed.”

Garcia said that amid the investigation, law enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run businesses may be connected” and the suspect in each incident was driving a similar vehicle.

On 5/11/22 at 2:20 p.m. 3 female victims were shot at the World Salon on Royal Ln. The suspect is described as a Black male 5’7” to 5’10” thin build with curly hair and beard. Contact Detective T. Johnston at 214.671.3523 or timothy.johnston@dallascityhall.com if you have info. pic.twitter.com/gZ81P62BN7

— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) May 12, 2022

The Dallas Police Department released a security camera image Thursday of the assailant dressed all in black running from the salon following the 2 p.m. shooting. The man appeared to be holding a semiautomatic rifle with an extended magazine clip.

Police said they learned from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked what appeared to be “a dark color minivan-type vehicle” on Royal Lane and then walked across the parking lot into the establishment and allegedly opened fire as soon as he entered the salon.

“The suspect then fired multiple rounds inside the business, wounded all three victims,” police said.

Police also released a security image of a maroon minivan they said the gunmen fled the scene in. The gunman was described by police as 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10, thin with curly hair and a beard.

Garcia said that the shooting at the salon may be linked to a shooting that happened a day before and one that took place last month.

Police learned from witness reports that on April 2 a driver in a red minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian run businesses and fired shots at three businesses, but no one was injured.

And on Tuesday a suspect in a burgundy van or car drove by and shot into Asian run businesses near 4849 Sunnyvale Street, but no one was injured.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have reached out to our partners to make them aware of the possible connection and ask for their assistance,” Garcia said. “This includes the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. We are also working with North Texas police partners to determine if this criminal action has or is taking place in their jurisdictions.”

Garcia said that police will be increasing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the city where there are large Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of the city of Dallas to keep an eye out and safeguard our city,” Garcia said. “Hate has no place here.”

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of attacks targeting Asian Americans across the nation, which spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The possibility that we are dealing with a violent gunman who is motivated by hate is chilling and deeply disturbing,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement on Friday.

“And I want our Asian American community – which has appallingly faced increased vitriol in recent years – to know that the city of Dallas and the people of Dallas stand with them,” he added.

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(NEW YORK) — A 1-year-girl was released from a New York hospital Friday nearly four months after she was shot in the face.

Catherine, whose mother described her as “our beautiful miracle baby,” was initially hospitalized in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital following the Jan. 19 shooting in the Bronx.

Since February, she has been hospitalized at Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, Westchester County, for extensive rehabilitation to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. She walked out of the hospital while holding her parents’ hands to cheers from hospital staff and officers from the New York Police Department and the Westchester County Police Department.

“Our journey has been long, but finally, this is the light at the end of the tunnel,” her mother, Miraida Gomez, told reporters while holding Catherine outside the hospital.

“We’re definitely happy, we’re eager to start this new chapter in our life, and just happy that everyone is able to witness a miracle,” she said.

Catherine was struck by a stray bullet days before her first birthday while in a parked car with her mother outside a grocery store, waiting for her father who was inside the store, police said.

A man chasing another man fired two shots, hitting the baby in the face, police said.

Recalling that day, Gomez said she was “numb.”

“I don’t think I could describe my emotions all at once,” she said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the shocking incident “a wake up call.”

“It should be unimaginable that this would happen in our city. But it did,” he said on social media at the time.

“Leaders at every level have abandoned city streets. I won’t,” he said.

Gomez said they weren’t sure what the outcome would be following the shooting.

“It was really gloomy. It felt like there was a dark cloud over us because everything was unknown,” she said.

Due to her injuries, the toddler had developed hemiparesis, a paralysis of her right side that affected her ability to eat, walk or use her right arm, the hospital said.

Today, she is a “super bubbly” toddler who loves to climb and is able to walk, “which is something they told us might not happen,” Gomez said.

“She’s beat all odds against her, gratefully,” Gomez said. “I want to say that her journey has also been miraculous compared to what we were always told, and we’re just happy to share this with everyone.”

Authorities are still looking for the shooter, who police said fled the scene in a gray four-door sedan.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark vowed that the city would not stop looking until the gunman was caught.

“You could continue to go out there and think you’re going to get away with it, but you’re not going to get away with it,” Clark told ABC New York station WABC in the wake of the shooting. “We’re going to find you eventually, because we’re not going to stop looking.”

ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Police are thinking differently about the undetermined death of a woman previously thought to have been killed in a rash of prostitute murders on Long Island, New York.

Suffolk County police on Friday released three 911 calls made on May 1, 2010, the day Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, vanished near Oak Beach.

Though the 2010 search for Gilbert led police to discover the Gilgo Beach murder victims, Suffolk County police said Friday that the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded that Gilbert’s death isn’t consistent with homicide.

Gilbert’s cause of death is undetermined and was most likely an accident, police said.

In the early hours of May 1, 2010, Gilbert was driven from New York City to Oak Beach to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, police said.

“Gilbert’s driver remained in the area while she met with Brewer,” police said in a statement. “During the meeting, Gilbert reportedly began acting irrational, prompting her client to contact the driver to have Gilbert leave his home.”

Gilbert called 911 from Brewer’s house. Police noted that at times on the call Gilbert spoke calmly but slurred her words. At other points on the call she was non-responsive, and at other points she screamed, police said. She told the operator, “There’s somebody after me.”

Gilbert eventually left Brewer’s home and ran to the house of another resident, who called 911. The third 911 call was made by another resident when Gilbert knocked on her door.

An investigation found Gilbert’s death “was most likely non-criminal,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told reporters Friday.

Brewer and Gilbert’s driver have been cleared of any criminal involvement in her death, police said.

However, Gilbert’s family hired a private pathologist to conduct an autopsy; while that pathologist determined there’s insufficient information to determine a definite cause of death, he found her death is consistent with homicidal strangulation, police said.

Harrison told reporters, “Shannan was a loving daughter, sister and a young woman who should have had a whole life ahead of her, regardless of the circumstances surrounding her death. Her unfortunate passing is tragic.”

Police said they are “committed to evaluating any information or evidence that the public may have to help determine a definitive cause of death.”

The investigation into the unsolved Gilgo Beach murders started more than 11 years ago when Suffolk County police, searching for Gilbert, discovered the body of Melissa Barthelemy along Ocean Parkway. The remains of 10 people were found in 2010 and 2011 in the weedy sections off Ocean Parkway near Jones Beach. At the time, police said half of the identified victims worked as prostitutes.

A $50,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murders.

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(HOT SPRINGS, Ark.) — Police in Hot Springs, Arkansas, said they arrested a man after a shooting left one person dead and three others injured following a high school graduation.

The three injured were transported to local hospitals to be treated and suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to the Hot Springs Police Department.

Police say the shooting occurred after a large fight broke out in a parking lot across from a convention center where the ceremony was being held for Hot Springs World Class High School on Thursday night.

“During the fight, HSPD officers and Garland County deputies were on scene attempting to defuse the situation when a single gunman began shooting into the crowd. Officers of the HSPD returned fire on the suspect, later identified as Charles Johnson,” Officer Omar Cervantes, a spokesperson for the HSPD, told ABC News in a statement on Friday.

Johnson, 25, was wounded, but able to flee the scene, Cervantes said. He was later arrested while getting treatment for his wounds at a local hospital, he said. Johnson has been charged with one count of murder in the first degree and three counts of battery.

Arkansas State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is complete, Cervantes said.

Hot Springs Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Nehus acknowledged the incident in a Facebook update on Friday saying school counselors and staff will be working with students who witnessed events.

“We are heartbroken that these violent events took place following such a beautiful celebration for our graduates and their families. Our Law Enforcement Officers and staff will continue to do all that we can to collaborate with local law enforcement agencies/officials to complete an investigation,” Nehus said.

No current students or graduates were involved in the incident, Nehus said in an earlier post. “Our hearts and thoughts are with all individuals who suffered injuries tonight,” she said.

Hot Springs is about an hour west of Little Rock, Arkansas.

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(NEW YORK) — Delaware State University announced plans to file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice over what its president called a “constitutionally dubious” drug search of a bus transporting its women’s lacrosse team through Georgia last month.

The historically Black university intends to file the complaint next week, alleging “misconduct” by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, the school’s president, Tony Allen, said during a press briefing Friday.

Allen did not go into detail on the contents of the complaint ahead of the filing, but said that “from our standpoint, the evidence is clear and compelling.”

“What we believe is that the search was conducted inappropriately, and there was implicit racial bias in the search,” he said, noting that the lacrosse team is 70% African American.

The university is seeking “justice” for the student-athletes, who may choose to pursue legal action on their own, Allen said.

Liberty County deputies pulled the bus over for an alleged traffic violation that then turned into a drug search. Nothing illegal was found, authorities and school officials said.

The incident, which occurred on April 20, came to light after one of the team’s lacrosse players wrote about the search in the school’s newspaper last week with the headline, “Delaware State Women’s Lacrosse Team Felt Racially Profiled by Police in Georgia.” The player also released a video of part of the deputies’ interactions with the team.

The team’s head coach, Pamella Jenkins, also charged that it was an incident of racial profiling in interview with ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.

In response to the allegations, Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman said this week that there was probable cause for the luggage search due to an alert from a K9.

“Although I do not believe any racial profiling took place based on the information I currently have, I welcome feedback from our community on ways that our law enforcement practices can be improved while still maintaining the law,” he said.

The sheriff’s office also released body-camera footage of the incident, during which a deputy can be heard telling the student-athletes to come forward with anything “questionable.”

“Marijuana is still illegal in the state of Georgia,” he said.

Prior to conducting the search, the deputy can be heard while in his cruiser saying, “There’s a bunch of dang school girls on the bus. There’s probably some weed. Maybe.”

The university contacted Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings about the incident, who this week wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division “urging a full examination,” she said.

In her letter, Jennings said she was “deeply troubled” by what happened.

“By all accounts these young women represented their school and our state with class — and they were rewarded with a questionable-at-best search through their belongings in an effort to find contraband that did not exist,” she wrote. “Not only did the deputies find nothing illegal in the bags; they did not issue a single ticket for the alleged traffic infraction.”

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(DALLAS) — Haley Taylor Schlitz made headlines in 2019 after getting accepted into nine law schools. She was just 16 at the time.

Now, after three years of classes, long nights, clerkships and internships – and a pandemic to boot – Taylor Schlitz is ready to step into her next chapter.

The 19-year-old from Keller, Texas, graduates from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law on Friday and will become the Dallas law school’s youngest Black student to do so, the school confirmed to “Good Morning America.”

“We are incredibly proud of Haley and all she has accomplished during her time at SMU Law School. We know she is going to make a difference in this world, and we can’t wait to see all the wonderful places her career will take her,” SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Jennifer Collins told “GMA” in an emailed statement.

Schlitz told “GMA” it feels surreal to finally be graduating but is ready for her big day.

“It’s just been a lot of buildup and it’s really exciting to take off,” the student said.

She’ll be celebrating this weekend with her family, including her mother, father and siblings before she gets cracking on her bar exam studies next Monday. “My village is a huge part of my motivation to keep going,” Schlitz said.

“My mom has been probably my absolute biggest motivator, my biggest supporter, the person that I look up to the most,” she continued. “She’s an ER doctor and so for the longest time, I wanted to be an ER doctor, but even after wanting to be an attorney, and now going to law school, she’s still somebody that is such a huge life counselor, such a great advisor for me.”

When she stopped by the “GMA” studio three years ago, Schlitz said she wanted to “help other students and fight for equity” and with law school wrapped up, she wants to do just that.

“I absolutely feel that even more strongly now,” Schlitz said. “It’s so much more tangible. I’m so close to actually being able to make that impact that I’ve been talking about … write that legislation, really get active.”

Schlitz, who cited criminal law and torts law as her two favorite law school courses, hopes to work in educational policy or teach. “I have quite a few job offers and right now, it just depends on where I want to be in the country,” she said.

For others searching for their own success, Schlitz said she had one key message for them.

“You don’t find your path. You make it,” she said. “Take life by the reins, by the horns, and just really make what you want your reality.”

She also encouraged people to take advantage of opportunities and not to be afraid to take chances.

“It’s OK to make mistakes,” Schlitz said.

She went on, “Just go back to your foundation and build up again and don’t be confined to boxes or stereotypes or when other people are trying to say whether it’s no or yes. It’s really up to you.”

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Texas Supreme Court reversed the statewide halt on investigations into parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children on Friday.

However, the court also stated that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is not legally obligated to investigate such care as child abuse based on the directives from Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The court did not rule whether such investigations violate the families’ rights or not — that is still up to lower courts.

In a Feb. 22 letter, Abbott called gender-transitioning or affirming procedures “child abuse,” following an opinion from Paxton that said the same.

Paxton attacked gender-affirming care for LGBTQ youth, saying that his opinion “comes at a critical time” when “Texans are seeing the horrors that flow from the merging of medicine and misguided ideology.”

State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary injunction on the directive in March after hearing from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation by DFPS. Meachum also heard from attorneys from the state.

The Texas Court of Appeals later that month affirmed the injunction.

The state Supreme Court said that neither the governor’s letter nor the attorney general’s opinion changed the legal obligations of the DFPS and have no authority over the state agency. Gov. Abbott was dismissed from the case, because the court states he has no authority over such investigations.

In February, the DFPS announced that it would comply with Paxton and Abbott’s directive. It was investigating at least nine families under Paxton’s directive, an agency spokesperson told ABC News.

“In sum, we are directed to no source of law obligating DFPS to base its investigatory decisions on the Governor’s letter or the Attorney General’s Opinion,” the opinion from the Texas Supreme Court states.

The court also will uphold the decision to block an investigation into a family that is suing the DFPS and Governor Greg Abbott over the directive.

According to an ACLU complaint against the state, “some doctors and other providers have discontinued prescribing medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria to transgender youth” as a result of Abbott’s directive.

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(ELGIN, Ill.) — Betty Brown was rejected by Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Illinois, for nursing school 71 years ago because she is Black. This year, the now-retired 90-year-old is being named an honorary chief nursing officer by that same hospital.

“It was very emotional,” Brown told ABC News. “And it was emotional for the speaker … because of somebody like me, it made her what she is today,” she said, referring to the hospital’s current president, Sheri De Shazo, who is a Black woman.

“That refusal to let that moment that I know was deeply painful — She didn’t let it become a barrier and that’s what inspires me,” De Shazo told ABC 7 Chicago.

Brown didn’t let the rejection 71 years ago phase her — she went on to make history as the first Black nursing student and the first Black nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Joliet, Illinois.

She later returned to work at Advocate Sherman Hospital, but she never held a grudge against the institution.

“I would always say to the young women: don’t give up,” she said. “Keep your eye on the goal and don’t give up and don’t become bitter.”

She’s also a local leader, volunteering with organizations like the local Elgin YWCA, which she says gave her and other Black children a safe place to play and socialize.

“When I was growing up, there weren’t many places that Black young women could go and be accepted and the YWCA was a place that we could go and be accepted,” she said.

She took swimming, tap dancing and music lessons there — and she says the organization sparked her passion for giving back to the community.

“While other organizations were still segregated, we have always welcomed everyone into our programs,” said Alana Freedman, an administrator at YWCA Elgin. “Over the years, almost her entire 90 years, she’s been a supporter of our programs and our mission. She’s come back to teach classes to our children here, like etiquette classes.”

The YWCA honors Brown annually, by presenting a social justice award in her honor to up-and-coming local heroes: the Betty Brown Racial Justice Award. It’s one of the many ways Brown has been honored over the years.

“I will always contribute to them,” Brown said.

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(NEW YORK) — Frank James, the man accused of opening firing on a Brooklyn, New York subway train last month, wounding 10 people, pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court to a two-count indictment that includes a federal terrorism charge.

Story developing…

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(BALTIMORE) — Baltimore police are searching for the gunmen who killed a pregnant woman, leaving her newborn in the hospital in critical condition.

Officers found a man and a 38-year-old pregnant woman shot inside a car at about 8:13 p.m. Thursday, Baltimore police said.

Both victims were taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital where the man was immediately pronounced dead, police said.

The woman gave birth and was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.

The newborn is in critical condition as a result of the emergency delivery, not the shooting, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison told reporters.

Police said they believe at least two gunmen fired multiple shots.

The suspects’ car pulled up next to victims’ car as it was parking, and one person fired out of the passenger window into the victim’s car, police said. Authorities believe the second gunman then got out of the driver’s side and fired into the victim’s car, police said.

“To be quite honest and frank, I don’t really give a s— what the conflict was,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told reporters. “We cannot have folks shooting at pregnant women in our city.”

Harrison called it a “very, very violent, brazen assault.”

He added, “We will do everything within our power to find who did this, catch them and hold them accountable.”

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