(RICHFIELD, Minn.) — One student is dead and another is critically injured after being shot on the sidewalk outside of a school Tuesday in Richfield, Minnesota, according to police.
Police said the incident took place around noon outside the South Education Center, but the suspects fled the scene, Jay Henthorne, chief of Richfield Police, told reporters.
The cause of the shooting is still under investigation.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is on the scene and assisting with the investigation.
Erica Barlow, who is the principal at nearby Richfield Middle School, sent a letter to parents informing them of the incident.
“The officers had weapons drawn and were in bullet-proof vests. It is unlikely that many students witnessed the event, as they were in class at the time,” she wrote. “However, it is important that you are aware of the incident in the event that your child hears about it, as some children may be deeply impacted by this type of news.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — During the omicron wave, unvaccinated Americans had much higher rates of COVID-19 cases and hospitalization than fully vaccinated people — especially those who received a booster shot, officials said Tuesday.
In a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health looked at county-level COVID data between Nov. 7, 2021 and Jan. 8, 2022.
They found that in the 14-day period ending Dec. 11 — the last period in which the delta variant was dominant — COVID case rates in Los Angeles were 12.3 times higher among the unvaccinated compared to boosted individuals. Hospitalization rates were 83 times higher.
By the time the omicron variant became dominant, the rate ratios were lower, but still showed that vaccinated people are much more protected.
During the week ending Jan. 8, unvaccinated people had infection rates 3.6 times higher than people who had received boosters and hospitalization rates were 23 times higher.
Additionally, fully vaccinated people in Los Angeles who had not received a booster had COVID case rates that were twice as low and hospitalization rates 5.3 times lower than the unvaccinated group.
The report found that, over the course of the two-month study period, nearly 423,000 COVID-19 cases were reported in Los Angeles County residents aged 18 and older.
Of the cases, 33.6% were among the unvaccinated, 53.2% were among the fully vaccinated without a booster and 13.3% were among fully vaccinated people who had received a booster.
It’s worth noting that, as of Jan. 8, 71% of county residents were fully vaccinated, according to county health department data. This means there will be a higher risk of breakthrough infections due to the higher absolute number of people being vaccinated.
Nearly 3% of unvaccinated individuals were hospitalized, 0.5% were admitted to the ICUs and 0.3% died of the virus, according to the report.
By comparison, 1% of fully vaccinated people without a booster and 0.7% of people with a booster were hospitalized.
Additionally, 0.12% of unboosted people and 0.08% of boosted people were admitted to ICUs and 0.05% and 0.03% died, respectively.
The report found that, during the omicron wave 6,743.5 per 100,000 unvaccinated people were contracting COVID-19 and 187.8 per 100,000 were hospitalized.
Among fully vaccinated people without a booster, rates were lower at 3,355.5 per 100,000 for COVID-19 cases and 35.4 per 100,000 for hospitalizations.
Rates were lowest among fully vaccinated people with a booster at 1,889 per 100,000 for infections and and 8.2 per 100,00 for hospitalizations.
“These findings align with those from recent studies, indicating that COVID-19 vaccination protects against severe COVID-19 caused by … variants, including omicron,” the authors wrote in the report. “Efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination and boosters are critical to preventing COVID-19–associated hospitalizations and severe outcomes.
The CDC has previously released similar estimates on the high risks for the unvaccinated when it comes to the omicron variant.
A report published last month from the agency found unvaccinated adults had a three times higher risk of infection than fully vaccinated adults and five times higher risk than those who had also been boosted.
(NEW YORK) — Johnson & Johnson and the nation’s three largest drug distributors agreed Tuesday to settle opioids-related claims by Native American tribes for nearly $600 million.
The settlement, announced in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, is tentative until hundreds of tribes sign on, which is expected.
“The Native American population has suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States. Indeed, American Indians have suffered the highest per capita rate of opioid overdoses,” the tribal leadership committee said in a statement filed with the court. “American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest drug overdose death rates in 2015 and the largest percentage increase in the number of deaths over time from 1999-2015 compared to other racial and ethnic groups.”
Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $150 million over the next two years while not admitting liability or wrongdoing. The company defended its promotion of the medications.
“The Company’s actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important prescription opioid medications were appropriate and responsible,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. “DURAGESIC®, NUCYNTA® and NUCYNTA® ER accounted for less than one percent of total opioid prescriptions in the U.S. since launch. The Company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the United States as part of our ongoing efforts to focus on transformational innovation and serving unmet patient needs.”
The drug distributors — AmerisourceBergen Corp., McKesson Corp., and Cardinal Health, Inc. — agreed to pay $440 million over the next seven years.
The tribal leadership committee said the money would help offset the “considerable” funds tribes have had to spend to cover the costs of the opioid crisis.
“The burden of paying these increased costs has diverted scarce tribal funds from other needs and has imposed severe financial burdens on the Tribal Plaintiffs, which will continue to bear significant costs related to abatement of the opioid addiction problem in their communities,” the tribal leadership committee said in its statement.
“This is a monumentally historic settlement that goes a small but very important distance toward addressing a killing epidemic that devastated tribal communities,” said Lloyd Miller, one of the lead tribal attorneys.
“Tribes are sovereign governments and must be able to vindicate their own interests to protect the health and welfare of their tribal communities,” Miller added.
The settlement puts Native American tribes on equal footing with states and cities as they try to abate the opioid crisis.
“The tribes have established in this case that they can play a major litigation role along with the state and local governments,” fellow tribal attorney Steve Skikos said. “The focus should be on the tribes themselves and how this settlement can help continue their efforts to address the opioid crisis.”
Tuesday’s result is different than Big Tobacco litigation, in which tribes were relegated to the sidelines and given only a share of what states received to address the consequences of tobacco and nicotine.
(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 886,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% 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:
Feb 01, 3:24 pm
Unvaccinated 23 times more likely to be hospitalized with omicron than those vaccinated, boosted
A new study from Los Angeles County’s health department estimates that during the city’s omicron surge, people who were unvaccinated were 3.6 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 23 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated and boosted.
The unvaccinated were 2 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated but not yet boosted, according to the study, which was published in the CDC’s weekly journal, MMWR.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Feb 01, 2:55 pm
US daily case rate drops below 500,000 for 1st time in weeks
The U.S. daily case rate has dropped below 500,000 for the first time in nearly one month, falling by 37.4% in the last two weeks to an average of 497,000 cases per day, according to federal data.
However, experts continue to caution that case levels remain much higher than previous surges, with the U.S. still reporting millions of new cases every week.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Kentucky, Washington, Oklahoma, Minnesota, California and North Dakota.
The number of COVID-19-positive Americans requiring hospitalization continues to steadily fall, with now under 129,000 virus-positive Americans currently receiving care — down by about 31,000 patients from 12 days ago, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 01, 1:21 pm
FDA advisory committee to review Pfizer vaccines for kids under 5 on Feb. 15
The FDA’s advisory committee will meet on Feb. 15 to review the Pfizer vaccine for use in children under the age of 5. The advisory committee is an independent group whose vote is non-binding, but the FDA takes it into consideration when making a final decision.
The vaccine would still need to go through several other approvals before it can be used on children under the age of 5. It would need to be authorized by the FDA, then the CDC advisory committee would need to meet for recommendations and it would need to be approved by the CDC.
Feb 01, 11:35 am
WHO: ‘Worrying’ increase in COVID deaths in most regions
Since omicron was first identified 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world — more than all the COVID-19 cases reported in 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
Now most regions of the world are “starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths,” WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Tuesday.
“This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we call on countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing. We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing. And we must continue to work to ensure all people have access to vaccines,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 01, 10:18 am
Vaccines for kids under 5 might come this month: Report
Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to ask the FDA to authorize their vaccine for kids under 5 as soon as Tuesday. If the FDA grants authorization, the vaccine may be available for children ages 6 months to 5 years by the end of February, The Washington Post reported.
Pfizer is expected to ask for authorization with two doses as the company continues to wait for data on three doses, the report said.
Vaccines are currently authorized for people 5 and older.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss and Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Jan 31, 5:00 pm
Pediatric cases drop for 1st time since Thanksgiving
New COVID-19 cases among children dropped last week for the first time since Thanksgiving, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. About 808,000 children tested positive last week, down from a peak of 1,150,000 cases reported the week ending Jan. 20.
However, the organizations warn that pediatric cases remain “extremely high,” still triple the peak level of the delta surge in the summer of 2021.
AAP and CHA noted there is an “urgent” need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects. The two organizations note in their report that a small percentage of pediatric cases have resulted in hospitalization and death.
More than 28 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal and census data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 31, 3:30 pm
Novavax asks FDA for emergency use authorization for its vaccine
Novavax on Monday submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Novavax uses a more traditional protein-based vaccine platform, which is different from Pfizer and Modena’s mRNA technology and Johnson & Johnson’s viral vector technology.
Novavax’s vaccine exposes a person to a lab-based piece of coronavirus to build immunity.
Novavax’s studies — conducted before the omicron variant — showed an approximately 90% efficacy.
Novavax was one of the early contenders for a COVID-19 vaccine; Operation Warp Speed allocated $1.6 billion for 100 million doses if the vaccine was authorized by the FDA.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Jan 31, 12:00 pm
Only 5 states reporting jump in cases
After weeks of surging cases, many U.S. states continue to see impressive declines in their national case averages.
The U.S. is reporting an average of about 543,000 new cases per day, down by about 32.2% in the last two weeks, according to federal data. Two weeks ago the nation was reporting more than 800,000 new cases every day.
Only five states are seeing at least a 10% increase in new cases: Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
But case levels still remain much higher than the nation’s previous surges. Experts point out that many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, case totals may be higher than reported.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Washington state, Kentucky and Oklahoma, according to federal data.
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — At least one law enforcement officer has been shot in a gun-related incident at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Deputies from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office are responding to reports of an active shooter at the college, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
The shooter is in custody, according to a tweet from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“I have been briefed on the situation at Bridgewater College. The shooter is in custody and state and local police are on the scene. I will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement,” Youngkin said.
The Harrisonburg Police Department has also responded to the scene. The FBI is also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Jury selection has been rescheduled to Thursday in the trial of a former Kentucky police officer who was involved in the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.
Brett Hankison’s trial was initially scheduled to begin Aug. 31, 2021, but was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Now Hankison’s trial is being delayed due to an unscheduled recent surgery.
Hankison is charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into a neighboring apartment while serving a “no-knock” warrant on Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020.
He and Louisville Metro Police Department officers Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly fired 32 shots into Taylor’s apartment.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but defended the officers’ decision to shoot. None have been charged with Taylor’s killing.
“Our investigation found that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Cameron said. “This justification bars us from pursuing charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor’s death.”
Hankison fired 10 of the shots into Taylor’s apartment. Errant bullets penetrated a wall of the residence and entered a neighboring apartment that was occupied by a child, a man and a pregnant woman, according to Cameron.
Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was fatally shot multiple times during the raid. No drugs were found in her apartment.
Cameron said none of Hankison’s shots struck Taylor.
Hankison has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
“Our hope is that we can pick an impartial jury,” Hankison’s lawyer Stew Mathews told ABC News. “We’re going to both defend [against] the charges in the courtroom.”
The fatal shooting sparked protests nationwide, as demonstrators demanded action against police brutality and racism in policing.
(STOCKTON, Calif.) — Firefighters in Stockton, California, are mourning one of their own, 47-year-old Fire Captain Vidal “Max” Fortuna, who was gunned down while putting out a fire on Monday.
The suspect, Robert Somerville, 67, was arrested Monday and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on homicide and weapons charges, the Stockton Police Department said.
Fortuna was shot while at the scene of a dumpster fire, which was reported to 911 around 4:45 a.m. Monday, officials said.
Officers arrived at the scene and detained Somerville, officials said, adding that police found a .380 caliber handgun at the scene.
Police are still looking into a possible motive, a Stockton police spokesman told ABC News.
Fortuna, a 21-year veteran of the Stockton Fire Department, leaves behind a wife and two children, Stockton Fire Chief Richard Edwards said.
Somerville is due in court Wednesday.
As Stockton’s firefighters grieve, fire departments from neighboring communities are staffing Stockton’s fire stations and responding to calls, according to the city.
“We are extremely grateful that our partners have come together to provide mutual aid to our community while we, as individuals and a department, are grieving and healing from this horrific and tragic event,” Chief Edwards said. “While the engine or truck may have a different name on the side, we want to let the community know that you are in good hands with professional firefighters who will be protecting and serving our community.”
(NEW YORK) — Over the past decade, the Black Lives Matter movement has brought attention to racism and injustice in America through the stories of hundreds of Black men, women and children, but it all started with a hashtag that went viral in the wake of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012.
Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, has been unyielding in her fight for social justice, becoming one of the most prominent activists nationwide and a leader in the “Mothers of the Movement” — a group of women whose Black children have been killed by police officers or gun violence.
Ten years after her son’s death, Fulton reflected on the fight for social justice and how she is keeping her son’s legacy alive in an exclusive interview with Good Morning America.
“My chest still hurts. I still have a hole in my heart,” Fulton said.
Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman, who deemed him “suspicious” as he walked back from a convenience store to his father’s fiancée’s home in Sanford, Florida, wearing a hoodie and carrying a bag of Skittles candy, according to police.
The hoodie and the Skittles became symbols of the fight for social justice as the Black Lives Matter movement grew to an international movement.
“I never lose sight that that was my baby,” Fulton said when asked how she reconciles her memory of her son with the symbol for justice that his name has become.
“By the same token, I know that Trayvon Martin is a symbol for other Trayvon Martins that you don’t know, that you have not said their name … He was just a vessel that represents so many others.”
In “Trayvon: Ten Years Later: A Mother’s Essay,” which was published by Amazon Original Stories on Feb. 1, Fulton reflects on love, loss and shares lessons with a new generation from her fight for social justice over the past 10 years.
“I absolutely think that change is happening; it’s just going a little slow,” Fulton said when asked if she feels that we are at a turning point in the fight for social justice.
Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman, who called 911 from his vehicle and was told by a police dispatcher not to follow the teenager.
Soon after, a physical altercation between Martin and Zimmerman ensued, and Martin was shot and killed, according to investigators.
Zimmerman claimed the shooting took place in self-defense. He was eventually arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He was found not guilty by a jury in July 2013.
Martin would have turned 27 this year on Feb. 5.
“You can’t help but to wonder what he would have become [and] what he would have achieved in the last 10 years,” Fulton said.
She said that when she sees his younger brother, Jahvaris Fulton, attend college, she always thinks about the path Trayvon would have taken. She often reflects on this when she visits an airport because of Trayvon’s interest in aviation.
“The airport also reminds me of Trayvon,” she said. “I always think about if he was going to fix the plane, [or] fly the planes because he wasn’t really sure.”
Fulton said that she wants her son’s story to be a reminder of the lack of accountability in America’s criminal justice system.
“I want the world to know that my son was unarmed and he was 17 years old,” Fulton said. “He wasn’t committing any crime. Trayvon’s only crime was the color of his skin … which is not a crime.”
Fulton said that while guilty verdicts in the cases of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are a sign of progress, the killings of those unarmed Black men are also an indication that “we take two steps forward and two steps back.”
“When I look at the case of George Floyd and I look at the case of Ahmaud Arbery and the people that killed them all were convicted and that they are going to be going to jail for the rest of their lives,” she said. “But by the same token, we had to lose lives in order to get to that point … why did we have to lose those lives in order for us to move the country forward?”
Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in May 2020 after police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck for more than 9 minutes. Chauvin was convicted in Floyd’s death and was sentenced in June 2021 to 22 and a half years in prison.
Arbery, an unarmed Black, was chased and gunned down while jogging in February 2020. Three men who were convicted in Arbery’s shooting were found guilty in November 2021 and were each sentenced last month to life in prison.
Both cases gained national attention and became rallying cries in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Fulton said that she is hopeful that the next generation of activists will bring about lasting change and while she “can’t change the world,” by herself, she wants to do her part to “make a difference in this world.”
“My purpose is to continue to bring awareness to senseless gun violence. My purpose is the circle of mothers — helping other mothers to cope with the loss of a child,” she said. “My purpose is to try to change laws.”
In her essay, “Trayvon: Ten Years Later,” Fulton reflects on how the past 10 years have changed her and how racism has shaped the fight for justice in her son’s name:
“How am I different today? If I am not picking myself up and becoming more than I was last year, then I am no good to anyone. There is a part of me that died along with my son, so I became who I had to become in that moment. I didn’t pray to become the mother of a movement. I was happy being the mother of Trayvon Martin and Jahvaris Fulton. I became the mother of a movement out of necessity. Sometimes you have to step into roles you did not ask for and that you do not want. You can find the strength from within if you are willing to live in your purpose. Believe in your strength from within. That’s a Word,” she writes in the essay.
“While nothing compares emotionally to the loss of a child due to senseless, racially tinged violence, the on- and offline smear campaign was its own sort of shock. It wasn’t enough that it took law enforcement far too long to take Trayvon’s killer into custody, right-wing conservatives and members of law enforcement started to attack my son’s character, as if any mistakes he made as a child could justify his untimely death. I had never seen such a negative frenzy with the media weaponized against the actual victim. We, my family and I, strove to channel our energy in a positive and productive way, but there were times back then when I felt like it was all in vain. It was shameful and undue to see a victim slandered in such a public way. The words’ Trayvon Martin’ had become clickbait and a hot topic, with celebrities, influencers, and politicians all taking part. While many seized the moment to speak truth to power and take a stand for Black lives, others were far less altruistic and merely saw it as an opportunity to garner attention and increase the reach of their brand in the most toxic of ways. According to an article in the Miami Herald, my son’s name was tweeted over two million times in the short period of thirty days.”
ABC News’ Amanda McMaster and Taylor Rhodes contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. District Court judge rejected on Monday a plea deal that would have allowed the white Georgia man and his father convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery to serve a large part of their sentences in federal prison.
Judge Lisa Godbey Wood’s decision to turn down Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael’s plea agreements with federal prosecutors came after Arbery’s parents and two aunts gave emotional statements asking the judge to reject the deal and proceed with a federal trial next week.
“All they would have to do is stand up and say that they were motivated by hate and then this court will concede to their preferred conditions of confinement,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told the judge. “I do not need to hear them say they were motivated by hate. That does me no good. It does my family no good.”
She added, “It is not fair to take away this victory that I prayed and I fought for. It is not right. It is not just. It is wrong. Please listen to me. Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
Following Travis McMichael’s hearing on Monday, a second hearing was to schedule on the plea deal the government’s attorneys negotiated with 66-year-old Gregory McMichael. However, Godbey Wood said her decision would be the same in the case of the elder McMichael, whose attorney agreed to cancel the hearing.
Both men and their neighbor, 52-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan, were convicted on state murder charges in Arbery’s 2020 death. They were sentenced to life in prison. Travis and Gregory McMichael were sentenced without the possibility of parole.
A federal prosecutor told the judge during Monday’s hearing that the agreement called for the men to immediately be turned over the Federal Bureau of Prisons to serve 30 years in a federal penitentiary before being returned to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of their sentence.
Godbey Wood gave both men the option to go forward with their guilty pleas and risk her giving them a harsher sentence than what they agreed to, or to withdraw their pleas and go to trial starting on Monday.
The judge gave them until Friday to decide.
Prior to the judge’s decision, federal prosecutor Tara Lyons touted the plea deal as one that “powerfully advances the larger interest of justice.”
“Through this resolution, the defendants will accept responsibility for the full nature of their crime, admitting publicly in front of the nation that this offense was racially motivated,” Lyons said.
Federal prosecutors filed notices of plea agreements for Travis McMichael, 35, and Gregory McMichael, on Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, and requested Monday’s hearing for Godbey Wood to review the deal.
No plea agreement was announced for Bryan.
In announcing her decision, Godbey Wood said the plea agreement would lock her into a sentence of 30 years or 360 months.
“Here in this relatively early stage in the case, I can’t say that 360 months is the precise, fair sentence in this case,” Gobey Wood said. “It could be more, it could be less, it could be that. But given the unique circumstances of this case and my desire to hear from all concerned regarding sentencing before I pronounce sentence, I am not comfortable accepting the terms of the plea agreement.”
Prior to Monday’s hearing, Arbery’s relatives slammed the plea deal, alleging it was done behind their backs. But Lyons said her office was in frequent communication with attorneys for Arbery’s family and that they assured prosecutors the family would not oppose the plea arrangement.
“We respect the court’s decision to not accept the sentencing terms of the proposed plea and to continue the hearing until Friday,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The Justice Department takes seriously its obligation to confer with the Arbery family and their lawyers both pursuant to the Crime Victim Rights Act and out of respect for the victim.”
Clarke added, “Before signing the proposed agreement reflecting the defendants’ confessions to federal hate crimes charges, the Civil Rights Division consulted with the victims’ attorneys. The Justice Department entered the plea agreement only after the victims’ attorneys informed me that the family was not opposed to it.”
Arbery was out for a jog on Feb. 23, 2020, in the Satilla shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, when the McMichaels assumed he was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. Bryan joined the five-minute pursuit, blocking Arbery’s path with his truck and recorded video on cellphone of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun during a struggle.
Arbery’s parents, Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, asked the federal court to be allowed to assert their right under federal law to oppose the plea deal directly before the court.
“The DOJ has gone behind my back to offer the men who murdered my son a deal to make their time in prison easier for them to serve,” Cooper-Jones said in a statement before Monday’s hearing. “I have made it clear at every possible moment that I do not agree to offer these men a plea deal of any kind. I have been completely betrayed by the DOJ lawyers.”
When Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted on state charges of murdering George Floyd, reached a plea agreement on federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights, he asked to be sent to federal prison even though he is expected to serve more time than the 22 years he was sentenced to in state court.
In response to Chauvin’s plea deal, legal experts told ABC News that federal penitentiaries run by the Bureau of Prisons tend to better than state prisons. The experts said federal prisons have fewer overcrowding issues, more comfortable bunks and even better food and educational resources than often cash-strapped state prisons. High-profile inmates, especially former law enforcement officers like Chauvin and Gregory McMichael, tend to also get greater protection in federal prison, the experts said.
The federal Bureau of Prisons estimated that the annual cost of housing an inmate in a federal facility in 2020 was a little over $39,000.
The annual cost of housing an inmate in a Georgia state prison is roughly $20,000, according to a 2015 study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research and policy organization.
“Federal prison is going to be a lighter sentence for these men,” Lee Merritt, an attorney for Cooper-Jones said during a news conference prior to the Monday’s hearing.
Merritt also cited an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into conditions at Georgia state prisons that was launched in September.
The DOJ said in a statement that the investigation is primarily focused on whether Georgia provides inmates reasonable protection from physical harm at the hands of other prisoners and staff.
Cooper-Jones said at Monday’s news conference that she found the plea deal “disrespectful.”
MORE: Travis McMichael testifies in his own defense in Ahmaud Arbery case
She said she learned of the deal on Sunday and has had discussions with DOJ attorneys since.
“I told them very, very adamantly I wanted them to go to state prison and do their time,” Cooper-Jones said.
In a separate news conference, Marcus Arbery said that finding out about the deal made him “mad as hell.”
He said his son’s death was a racially-motivated murder and “we want 100% justice, not half justice.”
He added, “I don’t want no chance of trying to make their lives easy.”
ABC News’ Janice McDonald and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
(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 885,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Only 5 states reporting jump in cases
-Moderna gets full FDA approval for vaccine
-Prime Minister Trudeau tests positive
-‘Partygate’ report finds ‘failures of leadership and judgement’ by UK leaders
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Jan 31, 5:00 pm
Pediatric cases drop for 1st time since Thanksgiving
New COVID-19 cases among children dropped last week for the first time since Thanksgiving, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. About 808,000 children tested positive last week, down from a peak of 1,150,000 cases reported the week ending Jan. 20.
However, the organizations warn that pediatric cases remain “extremely high,” still triple the peak level of the delta surge in the summer of 2021.
AAP and CHA noted there is an “urgent” need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects. The two organizations note in their report that a small percentage of pediatric cases have resulted in hospitalization and death.
More than 28 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal and census data.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 31, 3:30 pm
Novavax asks FDA for emergency use authorization for its vaccine
Novavax on Monday submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Novavax uses a more traditional protein-based vaccine platform, which is different from Pfizer and Modena’s mRNA technology and Johnson & Johnson’s viral vector technology.
Novavax’s vaccine exposes a person to a lab-based piece of coronavirus to build immunity.
Novavax’s studies — conducted before the omicron variant — showed an approximately 90% efficacy.
Novavax was one of the early contenders for a COVID-19 vaccine; Operation Warp Speed allocated $1.6 billion for 100 million doses if the vaccine was authorized by the FDA.
ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Jan 31, 12:00 pm
Only 5 states reporting jump in cases
After weeks of surging cases, many U.S. states continue to see impressive declines in their national case averages.
The U.S. is reporting an average of about 543,000 new cases per day, down by about 32.2% in the last two weeks, according to federal data. Two weeks ago the nation was reporting more than 800,000 new cases every day.
Only five states are seeing at least a 10% increase in new cases: Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
But case levels still remain much higher than the nation’s previous surges. Experts point out that many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, case totals may be higher than reported.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Washington state, Kentucky and Oklahoma, according to federal data.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 31, 11:30 am
Moderna gets full FDA approval for vaccine
Moderna has now received full FDA approval for its COVID-19 vaccine, the second vaccine maker to be granted full approval, after Pfizer.
All three vaccines currently available in the U.S. were granted emergency authorization based on large clinical studies and at least two months of safety data.
Moderna said the full approval was “based on a comprehensive submission package including efficacy and safety data approximately six months after second dose.”
