(NEW YORK) — Severe weather caused “significant damage” and wide-spread power outages in Oklahoma Wednesday, officials said.
Seminole got hit especially hard after a reported tornado touched down in the city, located about 65 miles east of Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security reported late Wednesday that there was “significant damage” to structures, including businesses, in Seminole, and that the Red Cross was setting up a shelter for displaced residents there.
The National Weather Service of Norman, Oklahoma, had warned residents of a “damaging tornado” on the ground near Seminole County earlier Wednesday.
Aerial footage from Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-TV showed widespread damage to structures in Seminole after the storm.
The extent of any casualties is unclear.
The City of Seminole warned residents about multiple downed power lines during the severe storm system.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it responded to Seminole in the wake of the storm damage, including protecting drivers from the downed power lines.
There are some 12,400 power outages reported throughout the state, while storms and flooding are forecast to continue overnight, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said.
A tornado watch remains in effect across much of Oklahoma and West-Central Texas Wednesday overnight.
There have already been at least seven reported tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma — including Crowell, Texas, and Maud, Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had said there was the potential for “significant” — EF2 or higher — tornadoes in parts of Oklahoma and Texas on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — The father of Trevor Reed, the American freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange last week, on Wednesday demonstrated outside the White House, calling for the Biden administration to help other Americans held hostage overseas, including two U.S. citizens still detained in Russia, Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Trevor Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine, was released last week after nearly three years in detention in Russia, where he was imprisoned on charges that his family and the U.S. government said were trumped up.
He arrived home in Texas last Thursday after being traded for a Russian pilot who had been serving a lengthy sentence in the U.S. for a drug-smuggling conviction. Reed is currently at a military base in San Antonio, receiving counseling and support as part of a reintegration program.
Despite reuniting with his son less than a week ago, Reed’s father Joey Reed and his daughter, Taylor Reed, travelled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to join the demonstration with families of Americans detained in several countries, including Venezuela, Iran, China, Rwanda.
Joey Reed said he had come to urge the Biden administration to repeat what it had done for his son and to put a spotlight on the cases of the families of other detainees.
“We think there’s at least 16 cases of detainees and hostages where an exchange would bring them home tomorrow,” Reed told ABC News.
He also called on President Joe Biden to meet with the families of other hostages as he did with the Reeds, saying he felt that had been pivotal in persuading the administration to go ahead with the exchange that freed his son.
“We believe that was the complete tipping point was when we met with him,” he told ABC News. “He’s a personable guy. You know, he’s compassionate, kind. Meet with these families like they met with us.”
Joey Reed said he had come at the insistence of his son, who is passionate about freeing Whelan, the other former U.S. Marine still held in Russia and who was not part of last week’s prisoner exchange.
Reed’s release has renewed focus on the cases of Whelan and Griner, who the U.S. government believes were seized by Russia as bargaining chips.
Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018 and is currently in a prison camp, sentenced to 16 years on espionage charges that the U.S. government and his family say were fabricated.
Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February when Russian police alleged they found vape cartridges in her luggage containing hashish oil, a substance illegal in Russia. This week, the State Department reclassified Griner as “wrongfully detained,” a designation that allows it to begin negotiating for her release and disregards the Russian criminal case against her.
Reed was freed in an exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian cargo plane pilot who was jailed in the U.S. in 2011, after he was seized in a DEA sting operation and convicted of plotting to smuggle large quantities of cocaine.
Since 2018, Russia had repeatedly floated Yaroshenko as a possible candidate for a prisoner trade for Reed and Whelan. But Russia has also pressed for Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer dubbed “the Merchant of Death,” who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. on drugs and terrorism charges.
Most experts believe Bout — one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers — is a more difficult trade for the U.S. to accept.
The U.S. is generally reluctant to make prisoner exchanges in hostage case out of a fear of encouraging hostile governments to seize more Americans.
But Joey Reed said his son’s case showed the U.S. could be more open to making exchanges if it can get Americans home.
“We just want a trade so they can bring Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner home tomorrow. And we hope that they’re working, towards that and that Trevor was just the beginning of a lot of Americans being repatriated with their country and their families,” Joey Reed said.
Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, was also at Wednesday’s demonstration and said it was “wonderful” Reed had been released and gave her hope for her brother.
“I do think Trevor Reed’s release showed that sort of trade was possible. But I think mostly to us it signaled that tools are available,” she said. “So, we’re just asking the White House, the administration to do whatever is [possible], use whatever tools are at their disposal to bring Paul home. And the same goes for everyone.
She said she had met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House before the demonstration and that the meeting had been encouraging.
Asked about the efforts to free detained Americans, State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday said, “What I can say is that we are doing everything we can — almost all of it unseen, almost all of it unsaid in public — to do everything we can to advance the commitment that President Biden has to see these Americans who were wrongfully or unjustly detained around the world — or in some cases held hostage around the world — brought home.”
Among the families represented the event were several whose relatives are held in Venezuela, including Alirio and Jose Luis Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Matthew Heath, Jose Angel Pereira, Airan Berry and Luke Denman.
Relatives of Siamak and Baquer Namazi, and Morad Tahbaz, also called for help in freeing them from Iran.
One by one the families stood at a microphone and described the pain of struggling to free their loved ones and pleaded with the Biden administration to act urgently. Several said, Reed’s release had given them hope.
Neda Shargi, whose brother, Emad, is serving a 10-year sentence in Iran, addressed Reed directly, saying: “If Trevor is watching this we are so grateful to you for being strong enough to come back. And for having your parents here. Trevor, it’s because of you that we have hope.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Three alleged gang members have been charged with multiple counts of murder stemming from a mass shooting last month in downtown Sacramento, California, that left six people dead and a dozen wounded, authorities said.
Two of the suspected gunmen are in custody, while the third suspect is still being sought by police, officials said.
“What we know is that this was clearly gang related. There was a gunfight between multiple gang rivals,” Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert identified the murder suspects as Smiley Martin, 27, his 26-year-old brother, Dandrae Martin, and 27-year-old Mtula Payton.
Smiley and Dandrae Martin have been in custody since the shooting occurred.
Payton remains on the run and Lester said a team of police officers is doing everything they can to locate him and bring him to justice.
Schubert said the three suspects are each charged with three counts of murder stemming from the killings of “innocent bystanders” — Melinda Davis, 57, Johntaya Alexander, 21, and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21.
Schubert said the three other people killed in the shooting — Sergio Harris, 38, Devazia Turner, 29, and Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32 — participated in the gun battle.
“The evidence shows and will show that these individuals armed themselves with guns,” Schubert said.
Citing California law, Schubert said if “individuals are involved in a gun battle and they kill innocent bystanders, all participants in that gun battle are responsible for the deaths of those innocent bystanders.”
“It doesn’t matter whose bullet killed who. What matters is that this was a gun battle between rival gang members who came armed to this scene in downtown Sacramento and innocent bystanders died,” Schubert said.
Schubert said the investigation is ongoing and more charges will likely be filed, including attempted murder charges.
On April 3, the shooting broke out around 2 a.m. at the corner of 10th and K Streets in a popular nightlife area of Sacramento, just blocks from the State Capital Building. Lester said 70 to 80 people were in the vicinity of the gunfire and many were caught in the cross fire.
Harris, Turner or Hoye-Lucchesi were identified as having weapons when they were shot dead, Schubert said.
Lester said investigators believe there were a total of five shooters.
Schubert declined to say if Harris, Turner and Hoye-Lucchesi were among those identified as having opened fire.
She said more than 100 shell casings were collected at the crime scene.
Schubert said Smiley Payton faces an enhancement charge of being in possession of a fully-automatic 9mm firearm with an extended magazine.
In addition to murder, the Martin brothers and Payton are also charged with being convicted felons in possession of weapons. Because they are each charged with multiple slayings, they all face capital murder enhancements that could make them eligible for the death penalty, Schubert said.
MORE: 3rd shooting near youth sports field in 7 days leaves several hurt
At the time of the shooting, Payton was free on $50,000 bail, stemming from a January 2020 arrest for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm, Schubert said.
Lester said more than 40 detectives were involved in the investigation, 12 of them full-time. The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive are assisting in the investigation.
“This act of violence devastated families and made members of our community concerned for their safety,” Lester said. “And as I said the day this happened, we are resolved to find those responsible and to secure justice for those victimized.”
(NEW YORK) — Authorities now believe that an Alabama corrections officer “willingly” participated in the escape of a capital murder suspect, according to the local sheriff in charge of the investigation.
“The pieces of the puzzle just came together,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“I think all of our employees and myself included were really hoping that she did not participate in this willingly. But all indications are that she absolutely did,” he added. “We’re very disappointed in that because we had the utmost trust in her as an employee and as an assistant director of corrections.”
Wednesday marked the sixth day of an intense search for Lauderdale County Assistant Director of Corrections Vicki White, 56, and inmate Casey White, 38. The pair — who authorities said are not related — went missing from Florence, Alabama, on Friday. That morning at the Lauderdale County Detention Center, Vicki White allegedly told her colleagues she was taking Casey White to the local courthouse for a “mental health evaluation,” though he didn’t have a court appearance scheduled. She violated policy by escorting the inmate alone, according to the sheriff.
“This particular guy and someone like that, no, that should have never happened, even if we had to delay getting him to court,” Singleton told ABC News on Wednesday.
Casey White, who is 6 feet, 9 inches tall, was charged with two counts of capital murder in September 2020 for the stabbing of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway. He could face the death penalty if convicted, according to the sheriff.
The inmate previously planned an escape from the Lauderdale County Detention Center in the fall of 2020, but authorities thwarted the plot before he could attempt it, the sheriff said. When authorities got word of the scheme, they found a homemade knife in his possession and learned that he was planning to take a hostage, according to the sheriff. Casey White was subsequently transferred to a state prison, where he remained until February 2022, when he returned to the Lauderdale County facility for court appearances related to the murder charge, the sheriff said.
Investigators have since learned that Casey White and Vicki White had a “special relationship” and were communicating after he was transferred from the county jail to state custody, according to the sheriff. The nature of that communication was not immediately clear.
“We know that they maintained contact while he was in the department of corrections up to and including until he was returned here Feb. 25 of this year,” Singleton told ABC News on Wednesday.
The pair “should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun,” and may be driving a 2007 orange or copper Ford Edge with minor damage to the left back bumper, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The U.S. Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 reward for information leading to Casey White’s capture and a $5,000 reward for information leading to Vicky White. A warrant was issued for Vicki White charging her with permitting or facilitating escape.
As of Wednesday morning, investigators “don’t have any idea where they might be,” the sheriff told ABC News.
“We were making some good progress on that. We may be hindered now that some of that information has gotten out,” he added. “But, you know, we’re still working around the clock to locate them and try to get them back in custody.”
Singleton has described Vicki White, a 17-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, as “an exemplary employee.” He said she had been talking about retiring for the last few months and turned in her paperwork last Thursday. The day she and Casey White went missing was set to be her last day on the job, according to the sheriff.
“My message would be: Vicki, you’ve been in this business for 17 years, you’ve seen this scenario play out more than once and you know how it always ends,” Singleton told ABC News on Wednesday. “Now go ahead and end it now, get to a phone and call 911, turn yourself in and help us get Casey White back behind bars because you know that’s where he’s going to eventually end up.”
(NEW YORK) — After serving 31 years in Florida State Prison for a murder he did not commit, Thomas Raynard James is a free man.
“Emotionally I was overwhelmed. I was not in a state of disbelief, because I knew this day was coming, eventually. I was looking forward to it. But emotionally I wasn’t really prepared for it,” James told ABC News.
James was convicted in 1991, when he was 23, for the 1990 death of Francis McKinnon.
Witnesses told police the robbery and murder of McKinnon was committed by a man named “Thomas James” or “Tommy James.” James was convicted after a witness then told jurors she saw James kill her stepfather during a robbery, due to what his lawyer called a case of mistaken identity.
According to the state attorney for Miami-Dade County, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the case lacked physical evidence and his fingerprints did not match those found at scene but he was still convicted after an eyewitness said she saw him shoot McKinnon.
James was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“It was horrendous …To have somebody to be incarcerated can be dramatic in of itself, but to know that you’re sitting here, and you’re going through these days on a daily basis for something that you didn’t have anything to do with, it was torture,” James says.
James said he “never gave up” thinking that he would eventually be released, but says that life in prison had been difficult.
“It’s hard to even put into words, some of the things that I had to deal with and the feelings that I was dealing with for the last over three decades,” he said.
James said he spent years filing motions proclaiming his innocence and was denied many times. He said he had even reached out twice to The Innocence Project in Florida, and was told both times they could not “proceed with his case.”
Attorney Natlie Figgers who specializes in personal injury and family law, took on James’ case pro bono out of a legal “duty,” she said.
“Once I saw the evidence and reviewed the case, it was pretty clear that a mistake had occurred, and I was pretty flabbergasted that he submitted that many appeals and they didn’t see the same thing… when you hear that it’s just mistaken identity due to a name. How can somebody be wrongfully convicted just based on having the same name?” Figgers told ABC News.
“I was a personal injury attorney, so I never dealt with criminal law. So I definitely want to make sure that it was something that I would be able to prove on his behalf … There were no other attorneys that were taking this case on at that time. So I felt like I had a duty,” she added.
The witness whose testimony placed James behind bars recanted her previous testimony last month, according to Rundle.
While he is a free man now, supporting himself and finding a job could be difficult. James’ family has even launched an online fundraising campaign for him.
Figgers said she is pursuing a civil wrongful imprisonment case, seeking compensation for James.
James said he plans on becoming “gainfully employed,” and also said he is working on a book about his story.
He said he hopes to help others in similar situations, but said he is most focused on making up for lost time.
“The list of things that I missed out on is long. For me, one thing that would mention is that I lost a lot of family, a lot of friends… they went to their grave with me still sitting in prison for a crime I didn’t commit,” James said.
“Injustice to anyone is injustice to everyone. So when people such as myself are crying out don’t just brush them off and automatically call them guilty,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — As fentanyl overdoses and deaths have been on the rise across America, investigators have been setting their sights internationally to stop the flow.
Police and other experts say fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills have been illegally imported from as far out as China and even smuggled through the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now. And at one time, we would never find fentanyl. Now we’re catching it all the time -and it is coming in different forms,” Robert Meza, an import specialist with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, told ABC News.
Even with some recent crackdowns by governments, the fentanyl is still making its way into the country, into the hands of dealers and victims who have no idea they’re taking the potentially deadly substance, according to law enforcement.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told ABC News that the majority of fentanyl that his office has confiscated is in the form of counterfeit pills that are delivered in the mail. The pills are designed to look like painkillers and sold to unsuspected victims, especially kids and teens, Bianco said.
“They think they’re experimenting with other drugs,” the sheriff told ABC News.
Some dealers who have been arrested for selling the tainted pills, however, said they had full knowledge of what was going out into the street, the authorities said. Investigators said the dealers add fentanyl to other illicit substances, such as heroin, to drive new addiction and create repeat clients.
Eric Falowski, who was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison in 2016 in Florida for intentionally adding fentanyl to counterfeit pills, told ABC News that he had his pills sent from a contact in China.
“She actually solicited the relationship directly to me and said she can provide fentanyl. That was my best supplier,” he told ABC News.
Under pressure from the U.S., Chinese suppliers have had difficulty sending the pills straight to America, experts said. However, those suppliers have come up with an alternative plan that includes more pit stops.
Investigators said Chinese drug suppliers send the ingredients to make fentanyl to cartels in Mexico. After creating the fentanyl, either in raw powder or pill form, the cartels would ship them across the border in trucks, according to investigators.
Last year more than 11,000 pounds of fentanyl made its way into the U.S. and more than half of it came right through the border of Mexico and San Diego, according to investigators. That was more than double the amount of fentanyl seized at the border compared to 2020, investigators said.
“What you’re seeing now is something that was never possible when fentanyl was coming from China. And that is a coverage of fentanyl all across this country,” Sam Quinones, the author of Dreamland and Least of Us, which chronicled the country’s opioid crisis, told ABC News.
Border patrol agents have stepped up their searches for the pills and other related fentanyl contraband.
In one instance, agents picked up 2 pounds of fentanyl and nearly 82 pounds of meth from a car. The small amount of fentanyl is much more potent than the dozens of pounds of meth, experts said.
Investigators said they’re not sure if they can stop the inflow of the tainted drugs, but reiterated that something needs to be done to stop the flow into the hands of unknowing victims.
“America is being poisoned with fentanyl, and we don’t even know it,” Bianco said.
(NEW YORK) — A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of sexual harassment withdrew his candidacy for a position at New York University Langone Health, after news of his potential hiring received backlash from the NYU community.
Dr. David Sabatini, a biologist, resigned from MIT last month after a review found he violated its workplace policy on consensual relationships and recommended his tenure be revoked. Sabatini allegedly failed to disclose a sexual relationship he had with “a person over whom he held a career-influencing role” and didn’t take any steps to “relinquish his mentoring and career-influencing roles,” according to a letter by MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
The committee conducting the review also had “significant concerns regarding his unprofessional behavior toward some lab members,” the letter added.
Sabatini has denied allegations of sexual harassment and has said the relationship at the center of the investigation was consensual. He has sued his accuser, as well as others, for defamation. His accuser has also countersued.
Sabatini said he was withdrawing his name from consideration, but maintained that he will “eventually be vindicated.”
“False, distorted, and preposterous allegations about me have intensified in the press and on social media in the wake of reports last week that New York University Langone Health was considering hiring me. I understand the enormous pressure this has placed on NYU Langone Health and do not want to distract from its important mission. I have therefore decided to withdraw my name from consideration for a faculty position there,” Sabatini said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday.
He added, “I deeply respect NYU Langone Health’s mission and appreciate the support from individuals who took the time to learn the facts. I remain steadfast in believing that the truth will ultimately emerge and that I will eventually be vindicated and able to return to my research.”
NYU Langone Health, the university’s academic medical center that includes the school of medicine, said in a statement Tuesday that both Sabatini and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine “reached the conclusion that it will not be possible for him to become a member of our faculty.”
“Our overarching mission at NYU Grossman School of Medicine is advancing science and medicine to save lives. That is what compelled us to give careful reflection to hiring Dr. Sabatini after he initially reached out to us,” NYU Langone Health said.
It added, “In the course of our due diligence, we heard voices of support from many dozens of Dr. Sabatini’s colleagues, lab alumni, and peers who described their first-hand experiences working with him. But we also heard clearly the deep concern from our own faculty, staff, and trainees. Our thorough review and deliberate approach was essential for us to make an independent evaluation consistent with our institutional priorities.”
News that Sabatini may be hired by NYU was first reported on science.org, which also reports that Sabatini has been forced out of or fired from three leading institutions for sexual harassment or for violating workplace or consensual sexual relationship policies.
Members of the NYU community, including its union for graduate workers, a group for women in STEM and a group of STEM researchers planning on forming a union, organized a protest against Sabatini’s hiring last week.
A petition against Sabatini’s hiring had gathered more than 400 signatures as of Tuesday. As long as Sabatini was being considered for a position, signatories pledged to not give or attend any talks, seminars, conferences or symposia hosted by NYU Langone Health. They also vowed not to teach any courses at NYU Langone or collaborate with any labs at NYU Langone.
(TULSA COUNTY, Okla.) — A judge in Oklahoma ruled Monday that a Tulsa Race Massacre reparations lawsuit may proceed. The decision by Tulsa County Judge Caroline Wall was welcome news to 107-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher and two other survivors of the 1921 massacre.
Fletcher is the oldest living survivor of the destruction that ensued when white mobs attacked the prominent Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Incensed crowds flooded the streets of what is often referred to as Black Wall Street, killing the prosperous neighborhood’s Black residents and demolishing their homes over two days.
Fletcher said she and her family never returned to Tulsa after they fled the night of May 31, 1921. Her home had been ravaged by fire, leaving her and hundreds of others without any of their possessions and livelihoods.
“There wasn’t anything to come back to,” she told ABC News.
She recalls the sounds of shooting and people screaming as she walked past neighbors lying dead in the street. Those memories have stayed with her, sometimes waking her up at night.
“We still have fear,” she said.
She and her co-plaintiffs, Lessie Benningfield Randle, also 107, and Hughes Van Ellis, 101, were all young children at the time. Fletcher will celebrate her 108th birthday on May 10.
The plaintiffs are suing for a victims’ compensation fund, pushing for “whatever it takes to replace our loss,” according to Fletcher.
Judge Wall partially denied Tulsa’s motion to dismiss the public nuisance civil court lawsuit on Monday. Oklahoma’s public nuisance statute allows authorities to be sued for what attorneys say is their role in endangering the safety of Greenwood’s residents and their property. The plaintiffs must show that the “comfort, repose, health, or safety” of Greenwood’s residents was harmed, and that Tulsa officials failed to perform their duties to protect Greenwood and its residents from that harm.
However, some officials are hesitant to pay monetary reparations to the victims and their families seeking restitution.
“I am not opposed to cash payments to descendants and the victims. It’s where the money comes from that for me is important,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, who led the effort to help find missing Tulsa victims, said to ABC News, before adding that he is ”opposed to levying a tax on this generation of Tulsans who are at no fault.”
The Mayor’s office declined to comment on the judge’s ruling as the lawsuit is under litigation.
Driesen Heath, a Tulsa-born reparations researcher and advocate, spoke with ABC News about the need for reparations to be paid to the massacre’s survivors.
“The city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma have documented culpability in the massacre and they need to repay in all forms that are necessary, the harms that they have perpetrated and facilitated,” Heath said.
Heath said the consequences of these harms are still affecting families 100 years later, causing some intergenerational pain while others accrue intergenerational wealth.
“People make arguments about not wanting to pay for the sins of their forefathers and their ancestors, but they want to benefit from those sins continually,” she said.
If won, the lawsuit could mean hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to victims, accounting for financial losses that Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the survivors, said “would have made a tremendous difference” in the lives of those affected.
“I have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And I really want this for my younger generation, something that I wasn’t able to do for them,” Fletcher said.
Over a century later, this lawsuit may be the last known living survivors’ last chance to see justice served for the racist decimation of their community that left over 300 people dead, hundreds more injured, and countless more marked by the devastation.
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — At least 19 states plan to offer legal refuge to transgender youth and their families displaced by anti-LGBTQ legislation that criminalizes the families and physicians of trans children.
“When trans kids’ lives are on the line, playing defense doesn’t cut it. It’s time to play offense,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Victory Institute.
She went on, “We are using the collective power of LGBTQ state legislators all across the nation to launch a counter-offensive that aims to protect trans kids and parents while also demonstrating that there is a positive agenda for trans people that lawmakers can support.”
Lawmakers in states like Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Alabama have proposed bills criminalizing gender-affirming transgender care.
In a February opinion, Texas state attorney General Ken Paxton called gender-affirming care “abuse.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed Paxton’s opinion by directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate such care as child abuse.
These investigations have been halted after a family sued the state alongside the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has also issued several anti-LGBTQ policies, including a ban on transgender youth health care that physicians said was riddled with misinformation.
He signed SB 184, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which states that anyone who provides gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy or physical gender-affirming surgeries — to an individual under age 18 could be convicted of a felony, face up to 10 years in prison and be fined $15,000.
To combat such efforts, a bill from California state Sen. Scott Wiener aims to make California a legal safe haven for parents who may have their transgender children taken away from them or be criminally prosecuted for providing care for their children.
“Starting with our legislation in California, we are building a coordinated national legislative campaign by LGBTQ lawmakers to provide refuge for trans kids and their families,” said Wiener. “We’re making it crystal clear: we will not let trans kids be belittled, used as political pawns and denied gender-affirming care.”
He has joined forces with LGBTQ advocacy groups from all over the country, including Victory Institute and Equality California.
“Parents should not live in fear of being hunted down by the government for loving and supporting their child,” said Tony Hoang, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California.
He continued, “As a native Texan, I’m ashamed of Gov. Abbott’s hateful attacks against trans kids and their families. But as a Californian, I’m so proud of our state for serving as a beacon of hope and a place of refuge for those children and their parents.”
New York, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, New Mexico and more have followed suit, introducing similar protections for trans people who come from out of state.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, there have been more than 300 bills targeting the LGBTQ community nationwide in 2022.
Aaron Katersky, Mark Crudele, and Meredith Deliso, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A faulty fan caused the glitch that prevented cameras at a Brooklyn subway station from transmitting during a mass shooting on a rush-hour train last month, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The cameras were working until “less than 24 hours” before the April 12 shooting on the N train as it approached the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, MTA Chair Janno Lieber wrote in a letter to congressional representatives obtained by ABC News.
In the days before the incident, technicians worked to replace the fan unit for an issue that initially wasn’t impacting the transmission of the cameras’ feed, according to Lieber.
“Technicians replaced the fan unit on the morning of April 8, but the network diagnostics still indicated a problem,” Lieber wrote in the letter, dated May 2. “MTA technicians made a series of repairs in an effort to correct the issue, and on the morning of Monday April 11, as technicians were installing new communication hardware, the camera failed.”
Lieber characterized the cause of the outage as a “failure of hardware and software” at the communications room that governs the station’s cameras that prevented them from transmitting their feed. The outage also impacted the cameras at the 25th Street and 45th Street subway stations.
“Technicians were working in the communications room on the next morning, April 12, when the attack took place,” the chair wrote. “NYPD directed them to leave the communications room as the investigation began.”
The cameras were back online by 12:30 p.m. on April 13, according to Lieber.
Dozens of people were injured, including 10 by gunfire, in the shooting. Police arrested a suspect more than 24 hours after the incident.
The NYPD, which had initially said the cameras were out at the three stations due to a “technical issue,” called claims that the lack of operating cameras delayed the manhunt “unfair and misleading.”
“The MTA cameras in other parts of the system were essential elements in determining his movements before and after the shootings,” John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism for the NYPD, said in a statement in the wake of the attack.
In his letter, Lieber also said the MTA’s subway camera system played a “critical role in the manhunt.”
The alleged gunman, 62-year-old Frank James, faces a terror-related count. Last week, defense attorneys charged in a court filing that federal agents improperly questioned him. In response, the federal government said it was authorized and within its rights in its interactions with James.
