National

(VENANGO COUNTY, Pa.) — The family of a Jamaican immigrant is calling his death a “modern-day lynching” after he was found shot to death on the front lawn of a rural Pennsylvania cabin.

Peter Bernardo Spencer, 29, was invited by a co-worker to join him at a cabin in Rockland Township, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 11, according to his family.

On Dec. 12, just a few hours later, Spencer was found with nine bullet wounds: one to the mouth, two in his buttocks and six in his abdomen or chest, according to the Venango County Coroner.

“They are trying to sweep this under the rug,” Spencer’s sister, Tehilah, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “We will not let them … He was slaughtered and killed in what I consider an act of modern-day lynching!”

Paul Jubas, the family’s lawyer, released autopsy photos of Spencer on his social media accounts at the family’s request. Jubas said the coroner’s assertion that he was shot in the chest and abdomen is a “misrepresentation” and that the photos indicate at least four of the shots were to Spencer’s back.

Pennsylvania State Police were called to the home around 2:30 a.m. and found Spencer dead on the front lawn with multiple gunshot wounds. Police say they found multiple firearms, “ballistic evidence” and controlled substances at the home.

Four suspects at the home were detained and questioned but were released after consultation with the Venango County District Attorney’s Office, according to officials. Pennsylvania State Police officials said they are investigating this as a homicide and the investigation involving the district attorney’s office is ongoing.

Spencer is Black. The former co-worker, as well as the other people at the cabin, were all white, according to the family. The people at the cabin during Spencer’s time of death have not been identified by police.

The district attorney’s office told ABC News that it will not comment on the ongoing investigation “out of concern for the impact that may have on a case and any potential charges.”

“Further disclosure of information may hinder or interfere with the investigation moving forward,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement to ABC News. “This office takes seriously any possibility that a crime may be fueled by hatred toward a person because of their race, color, religion or national origin. Rest assured, the Venango County District Attorney’s office will take every measure to ensure that justice is sought wherever it may be found.”

“The Franklin state troopers office will not give Peter’s family nor myself any information regarding this incident,” Carmela King, Spencer’s pregnant fiancee, wrote in a GoFundMe post. “We have been turned away several times while trying to reach out for information regarding what happened.”

The Pennsylvania State Police did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

No one has been charged with a crime, and Spencer’s family is demanding answers, according to a statement from Jubas.

The family is demanding that the Venango County coroner must immediately turn over all photos and other pertinent information; the FBI or Department of Justice gets involved in this investigation and provides transparency for Spencer’s family; and the Venango County district attorney refers the case to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Spencer loved the outdoors and hunting, according to his family. Several groups, including Hunters of Color, Brown Girl Outdoor World and Outdoor Alliance, have joined forces to demand justice in the murder of Spencer.

A petition from more than 30 groups is urging the county district attorney, state officials and the U.S. attorney general to take action in setting “a precedent so that all future hunters, outdoor recreationists, and people of color know that justice is on their side, and that the outdoors are truly for everyone.”

The petition has gotten more than 15,000 signatures online.

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(BUNNLEVEL, N.C.) — A North Carolina mother who went missing with her young daughter in 2016 have been found safe, according to authorities.

Amber Renaye Weber, then 21 years old and her 1-year-old daughter, Miracle Smith, were last seen on Dec. 4, 2016, in Fayetteville, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. They were reported missing on Jan. 31, 2017, but leads in the case eventually went cold, police said.

The pair were found Tuesday in a home in Bunnlevel, North Carolina, about 20 miles north of Fayetteville. In 2018, they were believed to be nearby in Harnett County after Weber received medical treatment there, but her family was not able to contact her, Raleigh-Durham CBS affiliate WNCN reported.

U.S. Marshals, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and deputies from the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office found Amber Weber and Miracle Smith at a home on Lemon Lane in Bunnlevel, Raleigh-Durham ABC affiliate WTVD reported. Four firearms were seized from the home, and Joe Smith, 59, was taken into custody, according to the U.S. Marshals. He had previously been arrested on Jan. 19 on a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, authorities said.

The case was reignited in 2021 after Fayetteville police investigative assistant Sonia Roldan partnered with the U.S. Marshalls to seek new leads for Weber and Miracle, police said. Information led investigators to believe Weber and Miracle had an association with Smith in Bunnlevel, authorities said.

Police did not disclose the nature of Smith’s relationship with Weber and her daughter.

The search “brought some closure and relief to family and friends of the missing person” as well as removed guns from the hands of a convicted felon, ATF Special Agent in Charge Vince Pallozzi said in a statement.

“The culmination of years of following leads and tips resulted in the outcome that we had all hoped for today; the successful recovery of a child who had been missing since December 2016,” Michael East, U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of North Carolina, said in a statement. “The U.S. Marshals Service and our investigative partners will not quit, nor be deterred until these children are rescued.”

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(SALT LAKE CITY) — A paramedic was temporarily blinded after their helicopter was affected by a laser strike earlier this month.

A Utah AirMed helicopter was struck while transporting a patient to the University of Utah hospital. A crew member aboard the flight experienced temporary blindness and blurred vision from the laser.

“They were able to safely land in our hospital, and once they were able to transfer the patient, the crew member was seen in the emergency room,” Nathan Morreale, chief flight paramedic for Utah AirMed told ABC News.

The crew member is back on the job but has experienced lingering blindness in his peripheral vision, Morreale said.

“The safety of our patients and our crews are at the forefront of everything we do,” Morreale said. “Even though our crews are highly trained for circumstances and scenarios, there’s no amount of training that can prepare you for what happens when a laser hits your eye and causes temporary blindness.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said its Flight Standards District Office is looking into the incident.

Laser incidents have been on the rise in recent years, according to the agency. The FAA reported 6,852 laser incidents in 2020, up from 6,136 in 2019. It’s the highest reported number of incidents since 2016.

Intentionally aiming lasers at aircraft violates federal law. Individuals may face up to $11,000 in civil penalties per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple incidents.

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(NEW YORK) — Thrift stores, antique fairs and flea markets in New York City are prime spots for finding valuable, hidden family heirlooms. When Chelsey Brown, an avid thrifter, was shown a letter written more than 75 years ago at the end of the Holocaust by a survivor, she knew where it belonged.

“The second that I had it transcribed, I just knew it had to go back to the right family,” Brown said. She found the note in late 2021.

The letter was written by Ilse Loewenberg, a woman who jumped out of a moving train that was headed to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. She was part of an underground Nazi resistance group called Gemeinschaft für Frieden und Aufbau, or the Association for Peace and Development.

According to later documentation from her sister, Loewenberg walked a three-day-long journey back to Berlin after escaping.

In 1944, she was recaptured and put in solitary confinement in Berlin until she was liberated by Russian troops in July 1945.

Loewenberg lost her mother, father, two sisters and husband in the Holocaust.

After she was freed, she wrote a letter to her living sister, Carla, who had immigrated to England prior to the war. Carla was the only sister and family member of Loewenberg’s to survive the tragedy.

“Through the kindness of our liberators, I am able to give you a sign of life from me after so many years,” Loewenberg wrote in German. “Dad, Mom, Grete, Lottchen and Hermann: no one is alive anymore. My pain is unspeakably big. My husband, whom I married 3.5 years ago, was also taken from me! … When there will be a regular mail connection, I will tell you everything in detail.”

That’s the letter that Brown bought from a flea market vendor.

Brown discovered the details of the family tree through MyHeritage.com, a global family history platform that retains historical records.

She discovered that both Loewenberg and Carla immigrated to the United States and settled in Forest Hills, New York, in 1948. Neither Loewenberg or Carla had children, but they did have extended families via their husbands.

Brown found Jill Butler, the daughter of Loewenberg’s brother-in-law’s brother. Butler and Loewenberg, who used to live near each other, were close before Loewenberg died in 2001.

When Brown sent Butler the letter, Butler and her family were moved.

“My whole family is truly in awe of all you have done for us,” Butler said in a letter back to Brown. “We all loved our Great-Aunt Ilse and are thrilled beyond words to read her thoughts in her own handwriting after she emerged from the depths of the European inferno.”

She added, “May God bless your noble work, and may you receive many blessings in return for all you do for families like mine.”

Brown, whose family also lost members in the Holocaust, now feels a deep connection to Loewenberg and said her story has inspired her.

“She’s a bit of inspiration for everyone to be better in life. After the war, Ilse actually sent supplies to the family that helped hide her in Berlin,” she said. “She really is an example of doing good in a world or being kind in a world that isn’t.”

Brown, who has done hundreds of heirloom returns, has said the stories have taught her a lot about life and relationships and that she wishes more people could be reconnected with family heirlooms.

“It does break my heart, because I’m sure that there’s a ton of items I could help reunite with her rightful families,” Brown said. “We shouldn’t be selling these items. It should be illegal. They should be going back to their families.”

She added, “The reason why people connected with my heirloom returns on social media is because it shows that there is magic in the lives of average people,” Brown said. “We each have our own unique ancestry and story, and I think that’s what our world and generation needs right now.”

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(MIAMI) — One body has been recovered as a search continued Wednesday morning for 38 other passengers believed to have been on a human-smuggling boat that capsized in the northern Straits of Florida, officials said.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard official said search and rescue crews are in a race against time to find any survivors.

“It is dire. The longer they remain in the water without food, without water, exposed to the marine environment, the sun, the sea conditions, every moment that passes it becomes much more dire and unlikely that anyone could survive in those conditions,” said Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of the Sector Miami Coast Guard.

The 25-foot capsized boat was discovered around 8 a.m. on Tuesday roughly 40 miles east of Florida’s Fort Pierce Inlet when a commercial tug-in barge operator radioed in that one survivor was found clinging to the hull of the overturned vessel.

“We often rely on sometimes heroic acts of good Samaritans operating in the marine environment and this case is no exception,” Burdian said. “We’re deeply grateful that the mariner located the survivor in this case and saved his life and called us so that we could continue to search for survivors.”

Burdian said the survivor was in a hospital in stable condition on Wednesday and was being interviewed by federal Homeland Security investigators. The survivor said a total of 40 people were aboard the boat when it flipped over in treacherous sea conditions after launching from Bimini Island in the Bahamas on Saturday evening, Burdian said.

“The survivor was not wearing a life jacket and reported that no one else on board was wearing a life jacket,” Burdian said.

Joshua Nelson, operations manager for the tug-in barge dubbed the “Signet Intruder” that rescued the man, said the survivor told the crew that his sister was on the boat and among those unaccounted for. Nelson, who was not on the barge owned by Signet Maritime Corp. when the rescue was made, told ABC News that his crew reported that the man was dehydrated and “was very malnourished and very distraught.”

“We’ve had other vessels and other crew members in some of our other divisions that have encountered this before,” Nelson said. “Nothing really prepares (you) in regards to this, but they felt relieved that they were able to get him on board.”

Burdian said the Coast Guard along with federal, state and local partners immediately initiated a search involving multiple Coast Guard cutters and Navy aircraft.

“We did recover a deceased body, who will be transferred to shore today in Fort Pierce and we continue to search for other survivors,” Burdian said.

She said crews have already searched an area of about 7,500 nautical miles or about the size of New Jersey.

Burdian said aircraft crews have reported seeing some debris fields with items consistent with the number of people believed to have been on board the vessel.

“We do suspect that this is a case of human smuggling,” Burdian said. “This event occurred in a normal route for human smuggling from the Bahamas into the southeast U.S.”

She said the waters in the Florida straits can be quite treacherous.

“In cases like this, small vessels, overloaded, inexperienced operators at night in bad weather is incredibly dangerous,” Burdian said.

Burdian would not comment on the origins or nationalities of the people believed to have been on the vessel.

“My focus remains on search and rescue,” Burdian said.

She said the search will continue throughout Wednesday, but cautioned, “the search can’t go on forever” and that the rescue operation will be re-evaluated on a daily basis.

“Without life jackets, anyone is disadvantaged to survive in the water,” Burdian said. “Life jackets save lives.”

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(HARTFORD, Conn.) — Investigators say they discovered over 100 bags of fentanyl in the bedroom of a Connecticut teen who overdosed and died earlier this month and are seeking any information on the person who provided the drugs.

The Hartford Police Department said Wednesday that the bags recovered from the room matched 60 bags found at the Sports and Medical Science Academy, a magnet school in Hartford where the unidentified 13-year-old overdosed on Jan. 13. He died the following Saturday, police said.

“This fentanyl was packaged in the same manner as the bags located at the school, had the same identifying stamp, and tested at an even higher purity level (60% purity),” the Hartford police said in a statement.

Fentanyl is a Schedule II prescription drug used to treat patients suffering from severe pain after surgery, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the institute.

The rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, such as fentanyl, increased 56%, from 11.4 per 100,000 in 2019 to 17.8 per 100,000 in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two other students at the public school were sickened after apparently being exposed to the drug, but both recovered, investigators said.

The police said there is no evidence that anyone other than the 13-year-old brought the drugs to the school, police said.

An “individual who has history at the residence” and narcotics history is a person of interest but hasn’t been labeled a suspect, according to the police. Investigators have also interviewed the teen’s mother, who they say has been cooperating.

“At this time, we have no evidence to support her having any prior knowledge of her son’s possession of the fentanyl,” the police said in a statement.

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(COLLEYVILLE, Texas) — A man faces a federal charge for allegedly selling the gun used in the Texas synagogue hostage situation earlier this month, authorities said.

Henry Williams, 32, faces one charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville on Jan. 15.

The armed suspect, identified by authorities as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, died in the incident when an FBI hostage rescue team breached the synagogue after an 11-hour standoff.

Investigators allege Williams sold Akram a Taurus G2C pistol on Jan. 13, two days before the hostage incident.

The FBI said it discovered Williams’ alleged ties to Akram through an analysis of Akram’s phone records after his death.

Agents first interviewed Williams on Jan. 16, during which he allegedly said he recalled meeting “a man with a British accent,” the Department of Justice said.

Agents interviewed Williams again after his arrest on an outstanding state warrant on Monday, during which he allegedly confirmed he sold Akram the handgun at an intersection in South Dallas after viewing a photo of the suspect, according to the Justice Department.

“Williams allegedly admitted to officers that Mr. Akram told him the gun was going to be used for ‘intimidation’ to get money from someone with an outstanding debt,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Cellphone records for both men also show their phones were in close proximity on Jan. 13, according to prosecutors.

Williams was arrested Tuesday on the firearm charge and made his first appearance before a magistrate judge Wednesday afternoon. According to the Department of Justice, Williams was previously convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance.

“Federal firearm laws are designed to keep guns from falling into dangerous hands. As a convicted felon, Mr. Williams was prohibited from carrying, acquiring, or selling firearms,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad Meacham said in a statement. “Whether or not he knew of his buyer’s nefarious intent is largely irrelevant — felons cannot have guns, period, and the Justice Department is committed to prosecuting those who do.”

A detention hearing has been scheduled for Monday. ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorney for comment.

A rabbi and three members of the synagogue were taken hostage during the incident. All four managed to escape unharmed.

FBI agents said the suspect was demanding the release of a convicted terrorist and believe the location was intentionally targeted because it was the closest synagogue to Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, where the prisoner is being held.

Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the suspect was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

In the weeks since the incident, investigators have been digging into the suspect’s social media and personal devices to try and find out more about his travel and associates.

Four men have also been arrested in England within the past week as part of the probe, British authorities said.

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 872,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 63.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 26, 5:00 pm
NIH trial finds mixing and matching boosters is safe and effective

A study from the National Institutes of Health published in the New England Journal of Medicine found mixing and matching boosters are safe and create a similar immune response to sticking with your initial vaccine.

An earlier version of this study, with more preliminary findings, helped guide the CDC’s decision to allow mix-and-match.

The study authors make no claims about specific combinations being more or less effective. The study did find that people who got an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) and then received the Johnson & Johnson booster had a significant increase in T-cell response, a part of immunity.

The trial looked at 458 participants who received a vaccine with no prior COVID-19 infection. This data is only for the first 29 days after receiving the booster; researchers plan to follow the participants for one year, allowing for more data.

-ABC News’ Vanya Jain, Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss, Dr. Alexis Carrington

Jan 26, 4:47 pm
Unvaccinated child dies in Mississippi

An unvaccinated child has died in Mississippi from COVID-19, according to the state’s health department.

The department confirmed to ABC News that the child was between the ages of 11 and 17, an age bracket that is eligible to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

This marked the 10th child — including an infant — to die in Mississippi from COVID-19. None of the 10 children were vaccinated, according to the health department.

-ABC News’ Josh Hoyos

Jan 26, 10:40 am
US hospital admissions projected to fall for 1st time in months

COVID-19-related hospital admissions in the U.S. are expected to fall in the weeks to come, the first time the nation would see a decline in months, according to forecast models used by the CDC.

Estimates suggest between 4,900 and 27,800 Americans could be admitted to the hospital each day by Feb. 18.

Deaths from COVID-19 are expected to remain stable or have an uncertain trend. Estimates suggest about 33,000 more Americans could die from COVID-19 over the next two weeks.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 25, 6:06 pm
All Super Bowl attendees to get KN95 mask

Every attendee of next month’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles will receive a KN95 mask, health officials said Tuesday.

Additionally, “safety team members” will remind fans to keep their masks on unless they are eating or drinking, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a county Board of Supervisors meeting.

Attendees at the Super Bowl Experience will also receive a free at-home rapid test kit, Ferrer said, with messaging to test before the big game on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium.

The county expects to distribute over 60,000 take-home kits during the Super Bowl Experience, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12.

-ABC News’ Jennifer Watts

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(NEW YORK) — A segment of a SpaceX rocket that launched seven years ago is currently on course to crash into the moon.

The booster was part of the Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in February 2015 as part of a mission to send a space-weather satellite more than a million miles from Earth.

However, after a long burn to release the satellite at a specific position in space, the booster didn’t have enough fuel to return to Earth’s atmosphere, meteorologist Eric Berger explained in Ars Technica.

Additionally, its orbit was not high enough to escape the gravity pull between Earth and the moon, leaving the booster in a “chaotic orbit.”

Bill Gray, creator of Project Pluto, which supplies astronomical software that tracks objects near Earth to amateur and professional astronomers, wrote in a blog post that he’s calculated the impact likely will occur on the far side of the moon on March 4 around 7:25 a.m. ET.

“It’s been up there — just an inert piece of space junk — for the past seven years,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told ABC News. “Because of its orbit, it keeps coming somewhat close to the moon and that changes its orbit unpredictably, and so the moon keeps tugging on it and changes it orbit.”

He explained that the “last tug” the booster got from the moon in January set it on a path that it will come back near the Earth in early February, go beyond the moon in late February and then start falling back toward it in early March, causing the crash.

It’s not clear exactly where the booster will hit because sunlight can “push” it to slightly change course, but the four-ton segment is going to crash at 5,600 mph, likely creating a crater with a diameter several feet wide.

However, McDowell, who publishes a regularspace report, said the collision is nothing to worry about.

“This is not the the first time that we’ve smashed rocket stages into the moon,” he said. “We used to do it deliberately back in the days of Project Apollo to actually do scientific experiments to basically ring the moon like a bell and look for the interior structure with seismometers — sort of an artificial earthquake if you like — and that didn’t do any damage to the moon.”

Additionally, in 2009, NASA’s LCROSS spacecraft purposely slammed into the moon to collect data about the impact.

The impending crash also should have positive implications for science — it will offer researchers a rare opportunity to study and observe how craters are formed on the moon.

“The advantage you have of smashing a rocket into the moon and creating an artificial crater, instead of letting nature throw a rock at the moon and making an actual one, is that you know exactly what you’re throwing at the moon, you know what it’s made of and how heavy it is,” McDowell said. “If you know a four-ton aluminum rocket stage makes this big a crater, then that gives you a sense of how big a rock must have made this other crater.”

He added that the new crater created by the booster may uncover material and give a better idea of the composition of that part of the moon.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — Dangerously cold temperatures have taken over the Midwest Wednesday before heading to the Northeast on Thursday.

Wednesday is the coldest morning so far this winter in places like Chicago, where parts of Lake Michigan are filled with ice.

The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — plunged Wednesday morning to about minus 19 in Chicago, minus 30 degrees in Minneapolis, minus 23 in Green Bay and minus 7 in Indianapolis.

The deep freeze then turns to the Northeast.

Thursday morning the wind chill is forecast to fall to minus 4 degrees in Boston, 6 degrees in New York and minus 10 degrees in Watertown, New York.

Even the South will feel the freeze. The wind chill is forecast to drop to 14 degrees in Raleigh, 23 in Atlanta and 21 in Nashville.

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