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(LOS ANGELES) — Every weekend, Shirley Raines gets up early to head to Skid Row, a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles known for its struggles with homelessness and poverty.

At Skid Row, Raines wears many different hats: she’s a makeup artist, a hair technician, a provider and a mother figure. She gives makeovers, dyes hair, hands out food and sends her clients off with a warm, “I love you.”

Beauty 2 The Streetz, a group started by Raines herself, has served hundreds, if not thousands, of homeless people in the region for six years. She and her team provide those in need with hot showers, hygiene products and other necessities to make life easier for those living on the streets.

Raines has begun documenting her work, and the stories of the people she serves, on social media, earning millions of views and likes on TikTok. In the comments section, she fends off stigma against homeless and impoverished communities. But she hopes her videos remind viewers that her clients are just as deserving of love, happiness and a good life.

“I would like for people to understand and know that at any given time, this could be you,” Raines said, referring to those living with homelessness. “How come we taught society that these people are to be blamed for their circumstances?”

How Beauty 2 The Streetz began

In 1987, Raines lost her son Demetrius just days before his third birthday. She spent years mourning, looking for answers to her loss and pain.

Six years ago, in an effort to make sense of her grief, she stumbled upon a friend at church who was off to feed the homeless and invited her along. That was the start of Raines’s path to Beauty 2 The Streetz.

“I think it just hit me — that I’ve got to do something with this pain,” Raines said. “I never expected this work to be so healing for me.”

She continued her work at Skid Row with a local charity organization at first, and soon enough, she was known as the “makeup lady.” Raines always rolled up with a full face of makeup and a head of colorful hair when she volunteered. It quickly grabbed the attention of her clients.

She began to provide hair and makeup services herself, fully funded with her own money. And though the makeup and hair skills of her and her team help others look and feel great, she says it’s the connections and friendships that keep her clients coming back.

“I really, really in my heart do not think it’s the hair color or the makeup, I think it’s the time that someone spends with them,” Raines said. “It’s the time that someone spends touching them, it’s the time someone spends catering to them. … A lot of people don’t even look in the mirror, girl!”

There’s a brightness in their eyes when they walk away from the salon chair. That joy is healing for Raines, but she also knows that’s not enough.

Though she offers help and assistance in the ways that she can, she is adamant that local officials do the work to address systemic issues of poverty, addiction and violence that plague the neighborhood.

Improving Skid Row

Skid Row has one of the largest stable homeless populations in the United States, with roughly 3,000 homeless people out on the streets, according to the Community Redevelopment Agency of the city of Los Angeles.

It’s a heavily condensed area; the Community Redevelopment Agency reports that the neighborhood contains roughly 3% of the county’s homeless population, yet it makes up only 0.0001% of the county’s total land area.

“It’s one of the most dangerous areas in Los Angeles,” Raines said. “It’s considered toxic, it’s considered an area that’s filled with dangerous people and people who have been dismissed by life.”

But she denounces that understanding of the Skid Row community, a fact evident in her TikTok videos, which she hopes can crush the stereotypes and preconceived notions of homeless people that her viewers have.

Kirkpatrick Tyler, director of Skid Row Strategy at the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement, said that the work to improve Skid Row and the conditions of life there is ongoing.

Tyler said initiatives on mental health care, substance abuse rehabilitation, violence and affordable housing are in progress, building on years of attempts to address these issues. He said community members are helping lead the discussions on how to move the city forward.

“Skid Row is full of vibrant people with big hearts that believe in themselves, that believe in one another, and that are committed and dedicated to transforming that community,” Tyler said.

“For our office, that was actually one of the first things that we had to address — that we were no longer going to speak about Skid Row as an area in downtown that had a homeless problem, that we would speak about Skid Row as a community,” he added.

He said efforts like Raines’ help give people that human connection that makes the neighborhood the community that it is.

Turning strangers into friends

Every time she hands out food or works on someone’s hair, Raines tells her clients that she loves them. She never expected them to say it back, but since her son’s death, she knew how important and impactful those words can be.

“I love you” were some of the last words she told her son before he died. Now, those words are said back to her every time she heads to Skid Row.

“It’s so funny when I watch back videos, there are random strangers coming to my window like, ‘OK, love you, see you next week.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, love you too,'” Raines said, laughing. “It just feels good, because I know how hard it is to trust when life hasn’t been kind to you, people haven’t been kind to you.”

And though nothing can heal the wound of a lost child, Raines said she finds solace and recovery in her work. She reminds her viewers to have compassion for people experiencing homelessness — and to give back to those in need as much as possible.

She thanks the many donors on social media who have already helped her fund the initiative.

“We think that they’re a burden to society but they’re not a burden to society. Society is a burden to them,” Raines said. “The goal in life is not to have as much as you can; the goal in life is to give as much as you can.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Nicholas is closing in on Texas where a hurricane watch has been issued along the coast.

Nicholas, now churning with 60 mph winds, could strengthen to a hurricane when it makes landfall Monday (hurricanes have 74 mph or higher winds).

Nicholas is slow moving and will likely remain in Texas from Monday to Wednesday.

Flash flooding is possible along the Texas coast, including Houston. Some areas could see about 1 foot of rain.

Storm surge could be as high as 5 feet south of Galveston.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in a tweet Monday morning urged residents to stay off the roads.

In Louisiana, where residents are still recovering from the devastating hurricanes Laura and Ida, Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency.

“The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the Southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing. In this area heavy rain and flash flooding are possible,” the governor said in a statement. “However, it is also likely that all of South Louisiana will see heavy rain this week, including areas recently affected by Hurricane Ida. This tropical storm has the potential to disrupt some power restoration and recovery work currently underway.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 655,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 62.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Sep 12, 9:14 pm
Nearly 74% of eligible Americans have at least 1 vaccine dose

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest vaccine numbers Sunday afternoon and revealed that over 209.2 million Americans 12 and older have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose.

That represents 73.8% of all Americans 12 and older, the agency said.

In 13 states, over 80% of the population has at least one dose, CDC data shows.

Hawaii is in the lead, as 88% of its residents have at least one shot, according to the CDC. West Virginia is last, as just 54.6% of its residents over 12 have at least one dose, the CDC data shows.

More than 40.9 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

And more than 659,000 Americans have been killed by the virus.

Sep 11, 4:25 pm
West Hollywood orders restaurants, bars and gyms to require vaccination proof indoors

The city of West Hollywood, California, issued an emergency executive order Friday requiring patrons to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the indoor portions of businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms.

The order comes “as the transmission rate of the COVID-19 delta variant remains high in Los Angeles and throughout the entire nation,” the city said in news release.

Anyone 18 or older must show proof of vaccination prior to entering “any indoor portion of a facility, subject only to certain exceptions.” The requirement should be enacted “as soon as possible but no later than Oct. 11,” according to the order.

Individuals who do not provide proof of full vaccination will be allowed to use outdoor portions of business facilities.

Other businesses affected by the order include nightclubs, theaters, cannabis consumption lounges and entertainment venues as well as yoga studios and tattoo parlors.

Employees 18 and older and all affected businesses must “ensure all staff who routinely work onsite provide proof of full vaccination before entering or working in any indoor portion of the facility” by Nov. 1.

Sep 11, 3:01 pm
74 million in US eligible for vaccine but remain unvaccinated

Some 74 million Americans eligible for the vaccine still aren’t vaccinated, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar said Saturday.

Still, many are flocking to get their shots with “+903K doses reported administered over yesterday’s total,” Shahpar said, with 395,000 of them being new vaccinations.

Sep 10, 9:13 pm
Texas suing 6 school districts over mask mandates

The Texas attorney general has filed lawsuits against six school districts that mandate masks, the office said Friday.

The lawsuits target the school districts of Richardson, Round Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring and Sherman for flouting Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local entities from requiring masks — what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon referred to in a statement as “acts of political defiance.”

In a statement to ABC News, Sylvia Wood, a spokesperson for Spring Independent School District, said the district had yet to be served and had no details about the lawsuit beyond a press release.

“Spring ISD will let the legal process unfold and allow the courts to decide the merits of the case,” Wood said.

Elgin Independent School District Superintendent Jodi Duron also told ABC News the school district had not been served yet, and that schools in Travis County, part of Elgin ISD, are required to have students wear masks. “To the District’s knowledge, the Travis County Order has not been suspended,” she said.

Round Rock Independent School District spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo told ABC News the school district is following Texas Education Agency guidance that allows for mask requirements “for adults or students for whom it is developmentally appropriate” and is working with local authorities “who advise us that masks remain an essential tool in stemming the spread of COVID-19 in our classrooms.”

Sherman Independent School District told ABC News in a statement that it had not received any information on the lawsuit yet and for now “will continue to focus on promoting a safe and healthy learning environment for our students and staff.”

ABC News has reached out to the other school districts for comment.

Nearly 90 school districts currently have mask mandates, according to a list compiled by Paxton’s office. The attorney general anticipates more lawsuits if school districts “continue to defy state law,” his office said in a statement.

Several school districts have sued the state to challenge the ban on mask mandates.

Last week, the Texas Education Agency said it is not enforcing the governor’s executive order “as the result of ongoing litigation.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 659,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 63% of Americans ages 12 and up are 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:

Sep 13, 9:35 am
North Carolina school board votes to stop quarantines, contact tracing

In Union County, North Carolina, the school board voted Monday to end quarantines and contact tracing, meaning students can go to school even if they’ve been in close contact with someone who tested positive, ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC reported.

Students and staff can only stay home if they test positive or have symptoms, WSOC said.

Sep 12, 9:14 pm
Nearly 74% of eligible Americans have at least 1 vaccine dose

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest vaccine numbers Sunday afternoon and revealed that over 209.2 million Americans 12 and older have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose.

That represents 73.8% of all Americans 12 and older, the agency said.

In 13 states, over 80% of the population has at least one dose, CDC data shows.

Hawaii is in the lead, as 88% of its residents have at least one shot, according to the CDC. West Virginia is last, as just 54.6% of its residents over 12 have at least one dose, the CDC data shows.

More than 40.9 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

And more than 659,000 Americans have been killed by the virus.

Sep 11, 4:25 pm
West Hollywood orders restaurants, bars and gyms to require vaccination proof indoors

The city of West Hollywood, California, issued an emergency executive order Friday requiring patrons to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the indoor portions of businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms.

The order comes “as the transmission rate of the COVID-19 delta variant remains high in Los Angeles and throughout the entire nation,” the city said in news release.

Anyone 18 or older must show proof of vaccination prior to entering “any indoor portion of a facility, subject only to certain exceptions.” The requirement should be enacted “as soon as possible but no later than Oct. 11,” according to the order.

Individuals who do not provide proof of full vaccination will be allowed to use outdoor portions of business facilities.

Other businesses affected by the order include nightclubs, theaters, cannabis consumption lounges and entertainment venues as well as yoga studios and tattoo parlors.

Employees 18 and older and all affected businesses must “ensure all staff who routinely work onsite provide proof of full vaccination before entering or working in any indoor portion of the facility” by Nov. 1.

Sep 11, 3:01 pm
74 million in US eligible for vaccine but remain unvaccinated

Some 74 million Americans eligible for the vaccine still aren’t vaccinated, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar said Saturday.

Still, many are flocking to get their shots with “+903K doses reported administered over yesterday’s total,” Shahpar said, with 395,000 of them being new vaccinations.

Sep 10, 9:13 pm
Texas suing 6 school districts over mask mandates

The Texas attorney general has filed lawsuits against six school districts that mandate masks, the office said Friday.

The lawsuits target the school districts of Richardson, Round Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring and Sherman for flouting Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local entities from requiring masks — what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon referred to in a statement as “acts of political defiance.”

In a statement to ABC News, Sylvia Wood, a spokesperson for Spring Independent School District, said the district had yet to be served and had no details about the lawsuit beyond a press release.

“Spring ISD will let the legal process unfold and allow the courts to decide the merits of the case,” Wood said.

Elgin Independent School District Superintendent Jodi Duron also told ABC News the school district had not been served yet, and that schools in Travis County, part of Elgin ISD, are required to have students wear masks. “To the District’s knowledge, the Travis County Order has not been suspended,” she said.

Round Rock Independent School District spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo told ABC News the school district is following Texas Education Agency guidance that allows for mask requirements “for adults or students for whom it is developmentally appropriate” and is working with local authorities “who advise us that masks remain an essential tool in stemming the spread of COVID-19 in our classrooms.”

Sherman Independent School District told ABC News in a statement that it had not received any information on the lawsuit yet and for now “will continue to focus on promoting a safe and healthy learning environment for our students and staff.”

ABC News has reached out to the other school districts for comment.

Nearly 90 school districts currently have mask mandates, according to a list compiled by Paxton’s office. The attorney general anticipates more lawsuits if school districts “continue to defy state law,” his office said in a statement.

Several school districts have sued the state to challenge the ban on mask mandates.

Last week, the Texas Education Agency said it is not enforcing the governor’s executive order “as the result of ongoing litigation.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ATLANTA) — Four people are injured and at least two people unaccounted for after an explosion rocked an apartment complex in an Atlanta suburb Sunday afternoon, first responders said.

At 1:24 p.m. the Dunwoody, Georgia, police department received a call about the explosion at the Arrive Apartments, a luxury apartment complex roughly 15 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

At least 15 to 20 units of the three-story building were damaged in the blast, Dunwoody Deputy Fire Chief Melvin Carter told reporters at a news conference Sunday afternoon. Jaeson Daniels with DeKalb County Fire Rescue told ABC News that four people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

Two people were unaccounted for, he said.

“Right now we’re still searching a building, we had a lot of structural damage and structural instability to the building,” Carter said.

First responders were using thermal imaging from drones to search the building, according to officials.

Daniels said that the explosion impacted three apartment units across three floors.

A leasing manager called Atlanta Gas prior to the explosion about a reported gas order, Carter said. But the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, Daniels said.

The utility is at the scene of the explosion, assisting first responders, Carter said. A spokeswoman Atlanta Gas Light told ABC News that the utility is cooperating with the emergency response.

The gas has been shut off in the impacted buildings, the spokeswoman said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A teenager was killed and another was critically injured when gunfire erupted at a popular Halloween hayride attraction in a Pittsburgh suburb, and police said the suspected gunman remained on the run Sunday.

The shooting unfolded around 8:15 p.m. Saturday at the Haunted Hills Hayride, about 13 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, according to the Allegheny County State Police.

Police said gunfire broke out near the ticket booth about 15 minutes before the annual charity event was set to open for the first night in a run scheduled to go through Halloween.

Several hundred people, including parents and children, were waiting to get into the event when multiple shots were fired, sparking a chaotic scene of people scrambling to get out of harm’s way, according to police.

Law enforcement sources told ABC affiliate WTAE in Pittsburgh that the shooting appeared to have stemmed from an argument near the ticket booth.

Lt. Venerando Costa of the Allegheny County Police Department said at a news conference that two 15-year-old boys were shot and taken to an area hospital, where one was pronounced dead and the other was in critical condition. Their names were not released.

Costa said witnesses described the suspected gunman as Black, 15 to 17 years old, 5 foot 9, with short hair and wearing dark blue cargo shorts and carrying a black backpack.
It was unclear if the suspect fled the scene on foot or in a vehicle.

No other injuries were reported.

“What goes through my mind when a 15-year-old gets shot at a hayride? I think it’s a terrible shame,” Costa said. “Anybody could have been hurt.”

The Haunted Hills Hayride, which also features a haunted trail lined with actors dressed in Halloween costumes, is an annual charity event to benefit the Autism Society of Pittsburgh.

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(NEW YORK) — In the wake of a Florida judge calling the state’s anti-riot law unconstitutional, advocates are saying it should serve as a warning to other states looking to implement similar legislation.

Chief Judge Mark Walker sided Thursday with civil rights groups suing Florida who alleged HB1 deters and punishes peaceful protests. Walker argued the language in the law was “vague to the point of unconstitutionality” and temporarily blocked the law from being enforced while legal challenges continue.

“Its vagueness permits those in power to weaponize its enforcement against any group who wishes to express any message that the government disapproves of.” Walker wrote. “If this court does not enjoin the statute’s enforcement, the lawless actions of a few rogue individuals could effectively criminalize the protected speech of hundreds, if not thousands, of law-abiding Floridians.”

Plaintiffs in the case praised the judge’s decision, saying it will contribute to the safety of protesters not just in Florida but across the nation.

“We’re happy about it, we’re happy that people can continue to take to the streets, and can continue to protest and feel safe doing so.” Jessika Ward, press secretary for Dream Defenders, one of the plaintiffs in the case, told ABC News. “We don’t want people to be in harm’s way and be arrested, just for, you know, saying how they feel and speaking up for injustices happening in our country.”

HB1, which was touted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, as necessary to protect law and order during protests, was passed on partisan lines earlier this year and was part of a growing movement from mostly Republican-backed legislatures around the country to pass similar legislation after 2020 was marked by demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The laws criminalize protests that turn violent and adds harsher penalties for people participating in these demonstrations, whether they were perpetrators or not.

Since the murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, 11 states have passed anti-riot legislation and at least 231 bills cracking down on protests have been introduced across 45 states, according to the nonpartisan International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which tracks legislation targeting the right to protest.

Florida’s court decision could set a precedent for other states who are trying to or have already passed similar legislation. North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed anti-riot legislation in his state a day after HB1 was temporarily blocked. That legislation would have also imposed harsh penalties for protesters charged with rioting.

While state lawmakers could bring a veto override, activists in North Carolina say what happened in Florida could dim those prospects.

“I’m hopeful that the court decision could actually discourage them from even trying to override the veto. Because, you know, maybe they’ll just see the writing on the wall,” said Ann Webb, a policy analyst of the ACLU of North Carolina.

In Oklahoma, civil rights groups are preparing for a similar legal challenge as in Florida for their state’s anti-protest legislation set to take effect Nov. 1. The law uses vague and overbroad vocabulary and discourages participation in protests by criminalizing it lawyers allege in the filing.

As states continue their legal challenges, lawyers say Florida serves as a powerful reminder for how constitutional freedoms will be upheld in court.

“Just as bad laws have a dangerous way of being contagious, orders striking down bad laws or recognizing their unconstitutionality equally sends a message.” Max Gaston, a staff attorney of the ACLU of Florida told ABC News. “I think it’s a powerful reminder that such unjust and unconstitutional efforts cannot be tolerated and that courts will not tolerate them.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Kylie Willis says she remembers when her father told her that he wanted to enlist in the Army. She was 9 at the time, and said she wanted to tell him no.

“I think I just heard something in his voice, even at 9 years old, that made me know that this was important to him. So I said, ‘OK,'” Willis told ABC News, sitting outside her home in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

“And, you know, seven, eight years later, we lost him because of that decision. And I struggled with that for a long time,” she added, pausing to take a deep breath.

Her father, Staff Sgt. Kirk Owen, was killed in August 2011, one month into his Afghanistan tour by a roadside bomb. According to Willis, Owen took the front seat of the car because he considered it the most dangerous place to be and didn’t want another soldier to ride in that position.

“My dad went over there for a reason. He went over there to protect people. He went over there to provide them clean drinking water. He went over there to make sure that little girls could go to school. and he did that. He did his mission. He did his job. And unfortunately, he was killed while he was doing that, but that doesn’t mean his sacrifice meant nothing,” said Willis.

That sacrifice is something Willis carries with her every day. Now, at 26 years old and expecting her first child, she said there’s not a day that goes by that she doesn’t think about what her family lost. For the past decade, she searched for a way to honor him and continue his legacy of service that she said he didn’t get to finish.

Willis eventually joined Children of Fallen Patriots, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit that provides college scholarships and educational counseling to military children who have lost a parent in the line of duty. Willis was one of the more than 10,000 children who have benefited from the organization, she said.

“I make sure that the other sons and daughters of our fellow service members know that their mommy and their daddy meant something, and that we love them and we will take care of them,” Willis told ABC News, a tear rolling slowly down her face.

Since 2001, more than 7,000 American service members have been killed fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For some families, like Willis’, the cost was incredibly high. But each family with a loved one serving in the war made a sacrifice.

In Bethany Montjoy’s case, her father survived the war and eventually came home. But by the time her father, Technical Sgt. Tim D. Montjoy had served 20 years in the Air Force, he had already missed more than a quarter of her life.

“You have these thoughts of when are they going to come back,” said Montjoy. “[You] want to talk to them, [you] want to hug them.”

As she grew older and as her father neared retirement, Montjoy said she wanted to channel her father’s legacy of service into helping other military kids who were also missing their parents. That’s when she and her father came up with the idea of getting military kids around high-profile role models like professional athletes. The pair created Operation Teammate, a nonprofit based in Georgia that introduces kids to athletes.

Capt. Nathaniel Lee was only 7 when his father, an Air Force captain, was killed in a training accident in 1997.

“It was like in a movie where the chaplain and the commander pulled up in a car,” said Lee. “And my mom’s reaction was instant. She knew why they were there.”

Life changed quickly for Lee’s family. Without family close by, they moved back to Northern California where Lee’s mom was from. And while it was great to have the family support, Lee said that it effectively cut them off from the military community, which made it hard to relate to the new kids in his class.

“Being the new kid is already hard,” said Lee, “And I didn’t want to be [the] kid whose dad died, so I was telling people that my parents were divorced and that’s why my dad wasn’t around.”

Concerned that he wasn’t expressing his grief, he said his mother helped him find a place amid the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivor, or TAPS, an organization that works with those grieving the death of a military family member. At his first event, Lee said he opened up for the first time about his dad.

Years later, though Lee became an officer in the Air Force and later joined the newly created Space Force. He said he felt the achievement wasn’t enough in honoring his father’s memory.

Around that time he was promoted, he received an email from TAPS looking for mentors, and said he took it as a sign.

At his first event as a mentor, he said the organizers brought all the mentors into one big room.

“They said: ‘Take a seat and leave an empty seat next to you, and a kid who’s lost someone is gonna walk in and sit down next to you, and it’s your job to start talking to them,'” explained Lee, and said he was more than a little nervous at the time.

Lee was paired that first day with Annelise Miller, whose father died in 2016 after 23 years of distinguished military service when she was only 8 years old.

“I remember my brother told me that it was OK to cry, but I didn’t really feel like crying,” Miller, now 13, told ABC News, recalling the day she found out her father had died.

It’s been five years since Miller sat down next to Lee that day in the oversized room, and their relationship is more meaningful than ever, she said.

“I don’t know anyone that has gone through mostly the same thing that I have gone through,” said Miller.

“He understands what it means to lose a father figure. He lost him when he was young too, so I can relate to him,” added Miller.

“No one’s grief journey is the same,” said Lee.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(EAST SAINT LOUIS, Ill.) — Three people have been arrested for allegedly carrying out a mass shooting that injured seven, including a 3-year-old child, in southern Illinois.

Three suspects opened fire near 6th Street and Martin Luther King Drive in East St. Louis, Illinois around 4 p.m. Thursday, police said.

In the chaotic shooting, Illinois State Police (ISP) said that one of the shooting victims was a 25-year-old man who crashed the car he was driving into a MetroLink train. No passengers on the train were injured.

The seven shooting victims were transported to area hospitals and their conditions are unknown at this time, according to the press release.

Police identified the victims as a 49-year-old male of Belleville, Illinois; a 24-year-old male of East St. Louis, Illinois; a 53-year-old male of East St. Louis, Illinois; a 53-year-old male of Belleville, Illinois; and a 38-year-old female of St. Louis, Missouri, in addition to the 25-year-old car driver from East St. Louis.

A 3-year-old boy was hit in the rampage and was taken to the East St. Louis Police Department by his guardian, authorities said. From there, agents from the ISP Public Safety Enforcement Group transported him to an area hospital while performing life-saving measures.

Witnesses reported seeing three men fleeing the scene with weapons and a manhunt was launched for the assailants, police said.

Three suspects were found at 2:30 a.m. Friday in the basement of a partially demolished building, ISP said in an update.

Illinois Police State Police said Friday the suspects were: Deangelo M. Higgs, 35, of East St. Louis, Lorenzo W. Bruce Jr., 32, of Madison, and Cartez R. Beard, 30 of Cahokia, all of Illinois.

They’ve been charged with one count of felon in possession of a weapon and seven counts of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm by the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office. Lawyer information for the three was not immediately available.

“The response to this shooting is an example of the Illinois State Police bringing to bear all resources at its disposal to bring justice to this community,” ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly said in a statement. “PSEG, Patrol, SWAT, Air Ops and all ISP personnel again demonstrated our ongoing commitment to protecting the people of East St. Louis.”

On Friday, East St. Louis Police Chief Kendall Perry said the shooting wasn’t random and was targeted, however a motive remains unknown at this time.

“They had a target. I don’t know what their motive was, but they weren’t shooting just randomly,” Perry said, The Associated Press reported.

Stephen Pierce was waiting for a bus with his wife and two children when he said he heard shots fired, describing it as “boom, boom boom,” according to local CBS affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri, KMOV. His wife was wounded in the arm, he said.

“Our backs were turned and the next thing you know they just started shooting and it came at the back of my head and I didn’t know what to do but to get up and run,” Pierce told the outlet.

East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III announced a curfew at midnight Friday into 6 a.m. that will last indefinitely to stop criminal activity in wake of the shooting, he announced in a press conference Friday.

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(NEW YORK) — Sept. 11, 2001, marked the start of a new era for Muslims in the United States.

Shortly after al-Qaida terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, many Muslims, as well as other Arab Americans, became the targets of anger and racism.

Mosques were burned or destroyed and death threats and harassment followed many Muslims in the weeks following the attacks, according to congressional testimony from the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2011. Some victims were beaten, attacked or held at gunpoint for merely being perceived as Muslim, the organization said.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is Muslim, reflected on 9/11 and the discrimination that followed in an interview with ABC News. “As Americans, as people who are living here, we were also attacked,” she said. “This is our community, this is our country, and there were Muslims who lost their lives in those towers, who were Muslim firefighters, who lost their lives.”

She added, “There is a desire by many to use our faith and our identity as a weapon against us and to ‘other’ us. That has been really harmful in so many ways.”

Hate crimes against Muslims rose 1617% from 2000 to 2001, according to the FBI marking some of the highest numbers of Islamophobic hate crimes ever in the U.S.

But even as the country moved further from the attacks and the Muslim American population in the country grew, discrimination against this community has not waned, Pew Research Center reports.

After the 9/11 attacks

On Sept. 17, 2001, then-President George W. Bush spoke at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., to denounce hatred against Muslims amid his vows to “win the war against terrorism” in the Middle East.

“​​The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” Bush said. “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”

And for the most part, the public agreed with the president — the Pew Research Center found that 59% of people had favorable views of Muslim-Americans following the attacks, although 40% of the public believe that the terrorists were motivated at least in part by religion.

However, those who didn’t view Muslims favorably went on the offense. Across the country, reports of bomb threats, arson and assaults against Muslims made headlines.

“In the post-9/11 period, there was a lot of fear about Muslims and terrorism in the United States and so we created all these new opportunities to surveil citizens and harass citizens and even entrap citizens in our desire to fight terrorism,” said Sally Howell, director of the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

As years passed, the number of hate crimes dropped (and then rose again in recent years), according to the FBI, but the damage was done. For years, Muslims in the United States felt unsure about their place in American society, according to the research initiative by the University of California, Berkeley called Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.

“This for me is one of the saddest pieces in the survey — we asked people, as a Muslim living in the West, if ‘I feel more strongly insecure and afraid for my family and kids,'” Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and leader of the college’s Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.

He said that of the people surveyed, almost 80% said they feel at least somewhat worried about the safety of their family in the U.S.

And each election cycle, that uncertainty about their role in American society was exacerbated. Islamophobia became a political tool, with some public figures, like former President Donald Trump and media commentators using the fear against Muslims and Arab Americans to rile up their bases.

Islamophobia as a political tool

Anti-Muslim rhetoric was used against former President Barack Obama during both of his presidential campaigns, despite the fact that Obama is a Christian. Racist and xenophobic rumors about his religion and about his birthplace were used to stoke outrage and mistrust against Obama, weaponizing pre-existing fear about Muslims.

Opponents doubled down on conspiracy theories about Obama concerning his nationality and religion — falsely claiming that he was ineligible to become the president because he was not born in the U.S., or that he secretly practiced Islam, which would not make him ineligible for the presidency.

“Islamophobia was monetized into votes at the ballot box by projecting Obama as a closet Muslim,” Bazian said.

Anti-Muslim sentiment continued during the 2016 election cycle, during which Islamophobic hate crimes surged again.

According to the FBI, there were 481 incidents in 2001, followed by a significant decline in incidents the next year — 155.

In 2015, there were 257 hate crimes against Muslims and 307 in 2016. The number of incidents has declined since then through 2019, the latest year for which data is available.

Experts link the rise in hate to the anti-Muslim rhetoric being espoused on the political stage. then-candidate Trump made the Islamic faith and Muslims targets of criticism throughout his presidential campaign including proposing a ban on Muslims entering the country.

In November 2015, he made unsubstantiated claims on ABC News that Arab Americans were celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers: “There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”

In March 2016, Trump claimed on CNN that hatred defined the Islam faith, saying “I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.”

During the first months of the Trump administration, the Pew Research Center reported that roughly 75% of Muslim American adults said there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.

Shortly into his time in office, Trump signed an executive order that barred immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries in a move that critics say enshrined his anti-Muslim stance into law. While he was a presidential candidate, he called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States.

The measure was legally challenged until the Supreme Court upheld an amended version of the order in 2018. It affected travelers and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries like Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

It also included North Koreans and some Venezuelans, and other nations were added to the list in 2020.

From 2017 to 2021, when Biden ended the ban, more than 40,000 people were refused visas because of the executive order, according to U.S. State Department figures.

Trump and supporters of the order denied that it was Islamophobic, saying instead that it was protecting the U.S. from terrorism. But advocates say that the order, which is no longer in effect legitimized hatred and fear of Muslims, making life and immigration to the U.S. much harder.

“It takes a long time to undo the effects of these types of messages and these types of campaigns,” Bazian said. “Islamophobia is not really about Muslims. It uses Muslims, but it’s not about Muslims. It’s about the rallying the discomfort of certain pockets of Western society at a time of unsureness.”

Now, Muslim communities across the country are focused on building safe communities and curbing Islamophobia with education and outreach following years of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the White House.

Building community and combatting discrimination

Despite efforts by some groups to quell this population, Muslims have continued to grow and thrive in the U.S.

Muslims have slowly gained representation in the government, in U.S. television and a presence in the public sphere across the country.

“If you look at the Detroit area and the contributions that immigrants from the Muslim world are making to society and the economy — they’re just the bedrock and backbone of so many local industries,” Howell said.

In 2007, the first Muslim member of Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was elected. In 2018, voters elected the first Muslim women to hold a seat in Congress: Democratic Reps. Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

In an interview, Tlaib told ABC News that her Muslim faith and background helps her understand the harm that can come from Islamophobia and xenophobia.

“We can be there to talk about it and say, ‘no, it didn’t work 20 years ago, it’s not going to work now. And you’re actually making us less safe in your and you’re also enabling hate and racism in our country when you target people solely based on their faith,'” Tlaib said. “I think that’s why were so strongly in opposition of the ban on people of Muslim faith into our country and so much more.”

The Muslim population in the U.S. continues to rise and is projected to have grown to 3.85 million people in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. And as more Muslims continue to cultivate communities across the country, more houses of worship in the U.S. have appeared over the last 20 years as well.

The Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership found 1,209 mosques in the U.S. in 2000 — and that number more than doubled in 2020, when researchers found at least 2,769 mosques.

Islam has been seen in the Western world in a negative light, according to Bazian, who believes this negative portrayal couldn’t be further from the truth. He says education is the first step to ridding the faith and its people of this stigma.

“They created this fear that America is being taken over by Muslims,” Bazian said, recommending training to teachers, human resources and the workplace. “We have been playing ignorant for some time, so education is still one of the primary tools to counter Islamophobia.”

Most Americans don’t know a Muslim, or admit to not knowing anything about Muslims, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

“The public has fairly limited sort of direct knowledge or interaction with Muslims,” said Dr. Besheer Mohamed, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “People who say they personally know someone who’s Muslim, then they have more positive views toward Islam and toward Muslims than people who don’t.”

This invisibility, Howell said, is what is giving Islamophobia its power.

“It’s important that we understand that because we need to know that Muslims are not outsiders, they’re not strangers,” Howell said. “When Muslims are visible to non-Muslims through their institutions, through their names, through their headscarves, through the Halal signs on their restaurants, then people would know their co-workers, their neighbors, as Muslims, and this helps overcome whatever you know prejudice or concern they might have.”

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