National

(WASHINGTON) — There are a “small number” of U.S. citizens in the northern Afghan city Mazar-e-Sharif who have been unable to evacuate on chartered flights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Tuesday, but he said the Taliban had grounded the aircraft because others manifested for these flights did not have valid travel documents.

The chartered flights for approximately 600 people have been held at Mazar-e-Sharif’s airport for over a week now, according to sources who helped organize them, with at least 19 U.S. citizens waiting in the city to board and flee Afghanistan.

A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday these Americans and at-risk Afghans were essentially being held hostage by the Taliban – something that Blinken dismissed Tuesday.

The Taliban have publicly said they will allow safe passage for those who want to leave, but without international flights yet and with overland journeys dangerous, it’s been intensely difficult for those that were left behind by President Joe Biden’s evacuation operations.

Among them are at least 100 U.S. citizens, Blinken said Tuesday, adding that the State Department has been “in direct contact with virtually all of them. We have case-management teams assigned to them to make sure that those who want to leave can in fact do so.”

Four of those Americans were able to evacuate over land to a neighboring country, a senior State Department official confirmed to ABC News Monday, saying the department helped facilitate their travel.

The Taliban were aware and did not impede their transit, the official added. They declined to say which country the family of four arrived in, but said local U.S. embassy officials met them at the border and said they were in “good condition.”

Hours later, however, Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who served as former President Donald Trump’s White House doctor, accused the State Department of “lying,” saying the agency “didn’t do a damn thing for these people for 12 days except almost get them killed repeatedly.”

“This is an attempt to save face by the administration for the Americans they left behind. This is a woman with three children from age 15 all the way down to two-years-old, and they did nothing to try to expedite this,” Curt Mills, a U.S. Army veteran and Trump appointee at the Pentagon, told Fox News. “It’s like we carried the ball to the 99-and-a-half yard line, and them taking it that last half yard and being like, ‘Look what we did.'”

The State Department declined to comment in response.

But Blinken said Tuesday the agency has been “working around the clock with NGOs, with members of Congress, and advocacy groups” and “conducting a great deal of diplomacy on this,” including with Taliban leaders.

That includes with the NGO Ascend, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering women and girls through mountain climbing. Its CEO Marina LeGree told ABC News Sunday that its Afghan members are “among hundreds of individuals — including some American citizens — who have been blocked by the Taliban from leaving Mazar-e-Sharif by charter plane for six days” at that point — now going on eight.

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, went further, telling Fox News Sunday that the Taliban had created a “hostage situation where they’re not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America.”

Blinken confirmed the State Department had identified “a relatively small number of Americans” in Mazar-e-Sharif with families trying to evacuate, but he denied there was “any hostage-like situation” or anyone held on aircraft or at the airport.

“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave – but because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he added.

Some critics have rejected that, saying the Biden administration must do more to get these flights off the ground and help these U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans. But Blinken said while they’re “doing all we can to clear any roadblocks… to make sure that charter flights carrying Americans or others to whom we have a special responsibility can depart Afghanistan safely,” the U.S. has limited ability to help.

“Without personnel on the ground, we can’t verify the accuracy of manifests, the identities of passengers, flight plans, or aviation security protocols, so this is a challenge, but one we are determined to work through,” he said Tuesday in Qatar, visiting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to thank the Qatari government for its help hosting tens of thousands of evacuees.

Qatari teams have flown into Kabul late last week to make repairs at the international airport and negotiate with the Taliban to reopen it securely. Speaking alongside Blinken and Austin, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters the airport had resumed chartered flights for aid groups and United Nations officials, including the top U.N. aid official Martin Griffiths who visited and met with Taliban leaders Sunday.

“We are about to get everything operational very soon,” Al Thani added, saying negotiations were ongoing with the Taliban to ensure the airport’s management and security — less than two weeks after ISIS-K, the terror group’s branch in Afghanistan, said it attacked a gate and killed at least 182 people, including 13 U.S. service members.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LA.) — The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29 and knocked out power to more than 1 million in Louisiana.

At least 69 people have died due to the storm — which hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane — as well as the devastation it left across eight states

In Louisiana, 13 have died due to the storm’s wrath. In the Northeast, at least 52 have died.

President Joe Biden will survey the damage of Ida’s remnants in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.

“Just days after visiting Louisiana to see the damage from the storm there, President Biden will also highlight how one in three Americans live in counties that have been impacted by severe weather events in recent months,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Just over the summer, 100 million Americans have been impacted by extreme weather, obviously in the Northeast, out West with wildfires, and then in the Gulf Coast.”

Biden has touted the extreme weather as a critical reason why Congress should pass his infrastructure package.

Recovery efforts continue in the South, where 60% of the 948,000 Entergy utility customers who lost power finally had it restored, the company said Tuesday.

In Louisiana, 54% of customers who lost power have had lights return, but 322,000 remain with outages, and in New Orleans, 73% of customers who lost power had it restored and 55,000 customers remain in the dark, Entergy said.

A team of 26,000 workers are restoring downed and damaged power lines. However, some hard-hit areas including Lafourche Parish and Plaquemines Parish aren’t forecast to have power restored until Sept. 29, according to the company’s estimation.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, 30,679 poles, 36,469 spans of wire and 5,959 transformers were damaged or destroyed — that’s more than Katrina, Ike, Delta and Zeta combined.

Access to water remains a major problem in the state, with boil water advisories still in place in the parishes of Jefferson, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. Tammany, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa.

More rain will is forecast to come down in Louisiana, further inundating the already saturated soil, with temperatures in the upper 80s, according to the National Weather Service.

Tuesday marks the last day for locals to evacuate to Ida shelters in northern Louisiana. Locals in need of shelter can go to one of eight pick-up locations for bus transportation.

About 14,000 people in Lafourche Parish were left homeless after Ida razed through and destroyed 75% of structures there.

“We are working feverishly, as hard as we can to get all people what they need to keep their lives going and to rebuild our community,” Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said to CNN on Monday.

Nursing home deaths are also a mounting concern in the state.

Among those who died in Louisiana, seven were nursing home residents who were transferred to a warehouse in Independence and later died. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has opened an investigation into the deaths. The Louisiana Health Department is also investigating nursing homes that transferred patients there and ordered all of them to shut down Saturday. Only five of the seven deaths were confirmed by the state to be storm-related.

On Saturday, during wellness checks at eight New Orleans facilities, five nursing home residents were found dead, the city said in a news release. None of those have been confirmed to be storm-related. In response, the city determined all eight facilities were “unfit” and evacuated nearly 600 residents to hospitals and shelters.

Also in Louisiana, at least four people have died and 141 were treated in hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning in the wake of Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Health, prompting officials to urge the public for safe generator use.

Officials advise placing generators at least 20 feet away from a home and assure all air entry points near the unit and home are properly sealed.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LA.) — The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29 and knocked out power to more than 1 million in Louisiana.

At least 71 people have died due to the storm — which hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane — as well as the devastation it left across eight states

In Louisiana, 15 have died due to the storm’s wrath. The Louisiana Health Department confirmed two more storm-related deaths Tuesday in St. Tammany Parish: a 68-year-old man who fell off a roof while making repairs to damage caused by Ida and a 71-year-old man who died due to a lack of oxygen during an extended power outage.

In the Northeast, at least 52 have died. The Harrison Police Department in Westchester County, New York, confirmed on Monday the recovery of a woman’s body who went missing during last week’s flooding.

President Joe Biden will survey the damage of Ida’s remnants in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.

“Just days after visiting Louisiana to see the damage from the storm there, President Biden will also highlight how one in three Americans live in counties that have been impacted by severe weather events in recent months,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Just over the summer, 100 million Americans have been impacted by extreme weather, obviously in the Northeast, out West with wildfires, and then in the Gulf Coast.”

Biden has touted the extreme weather as a critical reason why Congress should pass his infrastructure package.

Recovery efforts continue in the South, where 60% of the 948,000 Entergy utility customers who lost power finally had it restored, the company said Tuesday.

In Louisiana, 54% of customers who lost power have had lights return, but 322,000 remain with outages, and in New Orleans, 73% of customers who lost power had it restored and 55,000 customers remain in the dark, Entergy said.

A team of 26,000 workers are restoring downed and damaged power lines. However, some hard-hit areas including Lafourche Parish and Plaquemines Parish aren’t forecast to have power restored until Sept. 29, according to the company’s estimation.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, 30,679 poles, 36,469 spans of wire and 5,959 transformers were damaged or destroyed — that’s more than Katrina, Ike, Delta and Zeta combined.

Access to water remains a major problem in the state, with boil water advisories still in place in the parishes of Jefferson, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. Tammany, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa.

More rain will is forecast to come down in Louisiana, further inundating the already saturated soil, with temperatures in the upper 80s, according to the National Weather Service.

Tuesday marks the last day for locals to evacuate to Ida shelters in northern Louisiana. Locals in need of shelter can go to one of eight pick-up locations for bus transportation.

About 14,000 people in Lafourche Parish were left homeless after Ida razed through and destroyed 75% of structures there.

“We are working feverishly, as hard as we can to get all people what they need to keep their lives going and to rebuild our community,” Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said to CNN on Monday.

Nursing home deaths are also a mounting concern in the state.

Among those who died in Louisiana, seven were nursing home residents who were transferred to a warehouse in Independence and later died. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has opened an investigation into the deaths. The Louisiana Health Department is also investigating nursing homes that transferred patients there and ordered all of them to shut down Saturday. Only five of the seven deaths were confirmed by the state to be storm-related.

On Saturday, during wellness checks at eight New Orleans facilities, five nursing home residents were found dead, the city said in a news release. None of those have been confirmed to be storm-related. In response, the city determined all eight facilities were “unfit” and evacuated nearly 600 residents to hospitals and shelters.

Also in Louisiana, at least four people have died and 141 were treated in hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning in the wake of Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Health, prompting officials to urge the public for safe generator use.

Officials advise placing generators at least 20 feet away from a home and assure all air entry points near the unit and home are properly sealed.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Howard University canceled classes on Tuesday after it was hit with a ransomware attack, the Washington, D.C., the school said in a statement.

The HBCU said it has been working to fully address the incident and restore operations “but please consider that remediation, after an incident of this kind, is a long haul – not an overnight solution.”

Officials said the physical campus will be open to essential staff, but campus WiFi will be down.

“This is a highly dynamic situation, and it is our priority to protect all sensitive personal, research and clinical data,” the university said. “We are in contact with the FBI and the D.C. city government, and we are installing additional safety measures to further protect the University’s and your personal data from any criminal ciphering.”

The FBI has not responded to an ABC News request for comment, and neither the university nor law enforcement has identified who is behind the attack.

Howard said there has been no evidence that personal data has been stolen – but it is continuing to work with partners to find out what exactly happened.

Last week, the FBI and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned companies to be vigilant and on alert for ransomware attacks over the Labor Day weekend.

The agencies noted that the past two major cyber attacks have occurred over a holiday weekend – noting that, leading into the Mother’s Day weekend, the Colonial Pipeline was hacked, over Memorial Day weekend meat supplier JBS was hacked and over the Fourth of July weekend IT management company Kaseya was hacked.

The FBI and CISA noted in 2020 they received 791,790 complaints about targeting which is a record, and they are seeing the trend continue in 2021.

From January to July 31, 2021, the FBI has received 2,084 ransomware complaints with over $16.8M in losses, a 62% increase in reporting and 20% increase in reported losses compared to the same time frame in 2020.

“The destructive impact of ransomware continues to evolve beyond encryption of IT assets. Cyber criminals have increasingly targeted large, lucrative organizations and providers of critical services with the expectation of higher value ransoms and increased likelihood of payments,” the notice released Aug. 31 said. “Cyber criminals have also increasingly coupled initial encryption of data with a secondary form of extortion, in which they threaten to publicly name affected victims and release sensitive or proprietary data exfiltrated 1 This number includes only those victims who have provided information to IC3 before encryption, to further encourage payment of ransom.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday continued his tour of damage caused by Hurricane Ida, traveling to New York and New Jersey to see first-hand the devastation the massive storm inflicted on the Northeast.

The president will reprise his role as consoler in chief, meeting with local leaders to get a briefing on the damage to the area, and touring a neighborhood in Manville, New Jersey, before heading to Queens in New York to tour the damage there, and deliver remarks.

“He will receive an update on recovery efforts and underscore the commitment to providing the federal government’s full support for communities impacted by the storm,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed.

“He’ll also meet with families and first responders to hear firsthand about the devastation,” she added.

Biden will be joined by FEMA Administrator Criswell, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and members of New York and New Jersey’s congressional delegations. While on the ground, the president will make the case for his $1 trillion infrastructure bill that recently passed the Senate with bipartisan support, in addition to a $3.5 trillion social spending bill that comprises his ‘build back better’ agenda — arguing that the extreme weather events affecting the country highlight the need for major investments.

“The average cost of extreme weather are getting bigger, and no one is immune from climate change. That’s what you’ll hear him talk about in his remarks today, as well as his belief, based on a lot of data and studies, that every dollar that we invest saves $6 down the road in these communities as we’re preparing for extreme weather events,” Psaki told reporters on the way to New Jersey Tuesday.

“He’ll also make the case as to why this is the reason, one of the reasons, as we’re looking at these extreme weather events around the country, that it’s so imperative we act on addressing the climate crisis and investing in — addressing those through his Build Back Better agenda, which is working its way through Congress.”

Tuesday’s trip follows the president’s trip to Louisiana’s gulf coast Friday where Hurricane Ida made landfall, where he made similar arguments for his policy proposals currently working their way through Congress.

“Things are changing so drastically in terms of the environment,” the president said Friday. “We’ve already crossed certain thresholds. We can’t build back a road, a highway, a bridge or anything to what it was before. I mean, you got to build back to what it is now, what’s needed now.”

The White House has continued to highlight the federal response to the devastating storm that has claimed the lives of at least 68 people across 8 states. Over the weekend, President Biden approved emergency declarations for New York and New Jersey to provide federal aid to the recovery efforts in impacted areas.

“This was a historic storm, deadly. Tragically the loss of 27 lives, four still missing, small businesses, and roadways, and in some cases schools. First responders were extraordinarily heroic, but there is a significant loss associated with this storm. We’ll do all that we can in the state, but we need the federal government in a big way,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.

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 649,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 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% 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 07, 7:05 am
3rd person dies in Japan after receiving contaminated Moderna vaccine

A third person has died in Japan after receiving a dose from one of three batches of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that have since been recalled due to contamination, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The 49-year-old man died on Aug. 12, one day after getting his second shot of the two-dose vaccine. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the Japanese health ministry said in a statement Monday.

Two other men, aged 30 and 38, also died in August within days of getting their second Moderna shot. In all three cases, the men received doses from a batch manufactured in the same production line as another lot from which some unused vials were reported to contain foreign substances at multiple inoculation sites in Japan.

The deaths remain under investigation, and the Japanese health ministry said it has yet to establish any casual relationship with the vaccine.

The contaminated lot and two adjacent batches were suspended from use by the Japanese health ministry last month, pending an investigation. Moderna and its Japanese distribution partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. ultimately recalled the three lots, containing about 1.63 million doses, after an investigation confirmed the foreign matter to be high-grade stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.

The Japanese health ministry said that, based on the companies’ analysis, it is unlikely the stainless steel contaminants pose any additional health risk.

Moderna and Takeda have yet to release statements on the third fatality, but the companies have previously said there is currently no evidence that the other two deaths were caused by the vaccine.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of a giant statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the state’s capital, the monument will be coming down this week, state officials announced Monday.

The statue, erected in Richmond in 1890, will be removed from Monument Avenue this Wednesday, nearly a week after the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way for the state-owned monument to come down following several legal battles.

“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Northam said in a statement. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth.”

Northam ordered the removal of the statue in June 2020, amid nationwide protests against symbols of racism and oppression that erupted following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Virginia denied or dissolved injunctive relief sought in two lawsuits challenging the statue’s removal — one filed by a descendant of the former owners of the land where the monument stands, the other by several owners and a trustee of property in the area’s historic district — allowing the state to move forward with its plans.

The removal of the 12-ton, six-story statue is “extremely complex,” the state’s Department of General Services said, and will require “coordination with multiple entities to ensure the safety of everyone involved.”

The removal process will begin Tuesday evening, when crews will install protective fencing on the streets near the monument. All cars and pedestrians will be cleared from the area at that time.

The state will host a public viewing of the statue’s removal beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday. On Thursday, crews will remove plaques from the base of the monument. The 40-foot granite pedestal will remain for now, with its future still to be determined, the state said.

The statue itself will be held “in secure storage at a state-owned facility until a decision is made as to its disposition,” the state said.

This is the sixth and final Confederate statue to be removed from Monument Avenue.

“We are taking an important step this week to embrace the righteous cause and put the ‘Lost Cause’ behind us,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement. “Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect this reality.”

Last year, the busts of Lee and eight other Confederate leaders were removed from the Old House Chamber in the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond. The Fairfax County School Board has also changed the name of the Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield to the John R. Lewis High School, in honor of the late Georgia congressman and civil rights leader.

A great-great-great-nephew of Lee has previously said that taking down Confederate symbols in public spaces is a “no brainer.”

“I see them as idolatries,” Rev. Robert Lee IV told ABC News last year. “They have been created into idols of white supremacy and racism.”

Over 160 Confederate symbols were renamed or removed from public spaces in 2020, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW ORLEANS) — A flash flood watch has been issued for New Orleans until late Monday night as Louisiana continues its path toward recovery following Hurricane Ida’s disastrous touchdown.

Some regions of southern Louisiana could see two to four inches of heavy rain, threatening neighborhoods still picking up the pieces from one of the strongest hurricanes on record to hit the state.

Ida killed at least 11 people in Louisiana and initially left almost a million without power as it dumped more than 13 inches of rain in some communities. According to local utility company Entergy, Ida damaged or destroyed more than 14,000 poles, 2,223 transformers and 155 transmission structures.

Now, half a million customers remain without electricity more than a week later, according to PowerOutage.us.

The region is also experiencing hot and humid conditions, with temperatures reaching 90. The humidity will make it feel more like 95 to 100 degrees, forcing a heat advisory for the city as residents lack the power to run their air conditioners.

Several regions are also without water and some have been placed under boil-water advisories, while other homes are suffering from structural damages. Power lines and trees across southern Louisiana were uprooted by the hurricane’s 172 mph winds.

NOLAReady: Flash flood watch in effect in NOLA until 9pm today. Storm-related debris could block drains. Stay weather aware. Neutral ground parking allowed.

— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) September 6, 2021

Though the flash flood could hinder recovery efforts, the storm brewing in the southern Gulf is not predicted to become a tropical cyclone as it winds through the Gulf of Mexico. Still, officials are telling residents to stay alert.

The National Weather Service warns residents to move to higher ground, be cautious at night when it is harder to recognize flood dangers, and never drive their car into floodwaters.

Heavy rainfall of 1 to 2 inches per hour in isolated spots will be a concern this afternoon into this evening. Soils are saturated, so any rain will quickly run off. Debris could also block drains, and this could result in street flooding issues. #lawx #mswx https://t.co/1iyLMLOJTt

— NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) September 6, 2021

President Joe Biden visited Ida-damaged regions on Friday, linking Ida’s destruction to climate change and urging rebuilding efforts to take into account the growing impact of environmental disasters.

“Things are changing so drastically in terms of the environment,” the president said. “We’ve already crossed certain thresholds. We can’t build back a road, a highway, a bridge or anything to what it was before. I mean, you got to build back to what it is now, what’s needed now.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHICAGO) — At least eight children were shot in Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a 4-year-old boy who was killed when bullets fired outside his home flew through a window and hit him in the head while he was getting a haircut, police said on Monday.

A frustrated Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference that the children being shot in Chicago are getting caught in the crossfire of criminals and their intended targets, both of whom appear not to care if children are in the way.

“I’m not trying to vilify the victim, but these innocent young children should not be the byproduct of your criminal behavior,” Brown said. “This is directly to the offenders who are being targeted: You know the life you lead, you know that you’re being targeted, or that you’ve done something to cause this retribution from some rival gang or some rival person. Why are you continuing to be around young people, our children?”

Seldom is it the case that children are directly targeted, Brown said, adding that “it’s always some other offender, gang member, criminal network, beef” in which adults are targeted and young people nearby “are shot as innocent bystanders.”

Mychal Moultry was the youngest child shot over the holiday weekend and police were still searching for his killer on Monday. A $9,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for the child’s death.

Chicago police said the 4-year-old was in his home in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the city’s South Side when shooting erupted outside the residence around 9 p.m. on Friday.

“This victim was inside his residence in the front area getting his hair cut when two bullets came through the front window and struck our victim in the head,” said Deputy Chief of Detectives Rahman Muhammad.

The child was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Muhammad pleaded for the public’s help in solving the homicide.

Shootings over the weekend in Chicago added to a grim toll of at least 280 minors who have been shot this year in the city, including now 35 who have died, according to data analyzed by ABC station WLS in Chicago.

At least seven other victims, ranging in age from 12 to 18, were shot in Chicago over the weekend.

Another 49 adults were shot in the city, four fatally, between 8 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Monday, including a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver who was shot and wounded on the job during an attack, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports.

A 13-year-old boy was shot while inside his home on Saturday, Muhammad said. The shooting happened just before 8 p.m. on the South Side and police said no suspects have yet been identified.

The child was shot in the head and remains in serious condition at Comer Children’s Hospital, police said.

“He was inside of the basement area of his home with friends and someone shot into that basement window,” Muhammad said.

In another shooting on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister were both wounded at a community back-to-school event where they were doing volunteer work at the behest of their parents, according to police. The shooting unfolded abound 3:23 p.m. when two suspects opened fire from a car driving by the event, which was being held at a gas station in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side and included a bouncy house and go-karts for children.

“There were multiple shots that were fired into that crowd causing the injuries of our victims,” Muhammad said.

Police said the girl suffered a graze wound to her hip and her brother was shot in the ankle. They were taken to Rush University Medical Center, where they were treated and released. A 25-year-old man was also shot four times, including twice in the chest, in the same incident and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

It remained unclear on Monday if the wounded man was the intended target.

Lamar Peterson, the father of the two children shot, told WLS he took his son and daughter to the event to “give back to the community” by volunteering to help children who are less fortunate than them.

“I don’t know what’s in these people’s heart that would make them want to shoot at a bouncy house and go-karts and cotton candy,” Peterson said.

In yet another shooting, a 14-year-old boy walking with his father to a car was hit by gunfire in the elbow around 10:30 a.m. on the city’s West Side, according to police. No suspects have been identified in the shooting.

Another 14-year-old boy was shot on Sunday in the Little Village neighborhood in the southeast part of the city. The boy was standing outside about 3 a.m. when shots rang out from a white car and he was hit in the thigh and buttocks, police said. The boy was treated at Mt. Sinai Hospital, and police are still working to identify suspects in the shooting.

And two teenagers, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, were both shot around 2 a.m. on Sunday while they were in a car in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side traveling home from a party, police said. The 17-year-old was shot in the back while the other victim was hit in the leg, police said.

They were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center and were both in stable condition, police said. No arrests have been made.

Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott of the Chicago Police Department said the weekend shootings came despite officers being deployed to neighborhoods where there has recently been an uptick in shootings.

Citywide a total of 2,344 people have been shot in the first eight months of this year in Chicago, a 9% increase from the same period in 2020, according to police department crime statistics. Police have investigated 524 murders this year, an increase of 3% over last year.

Brown asked residents of Chicago to work with police if they have information about any of the shootings.

“People in the community know who the offenders are and the circumstances behind who’s targeted, and we need people in the community to come forward,” Brown said. “This is beyond trusting the police. This is about the safety of our babies.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(COLO.) — An investigation is underway after a 6-year-old girl was fatally injured on a ride at an amusement park in Colorado, officials said.

The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. local time Sunday at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, located atop Iron Mountain in Glenwood Springs, about 60 miles west of Vail.

The child was fatally injured while riding on the Haunted Mine Drop ride — which plunges riders 110 feet down a pitch-black tunnel in seconds — the Garfield County Coroner’s Office said.

Employees of the amusement park administered first aid until paramedics arrived and determined the child was dead, the coroner’s office said in a statement.

The name of the child, who was visiting with her family from Colorado Springs, has not been released pending notification of additional family members.

An autopsy is scheduled for this week, said the coroner’s office, which is investigating the death along with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office.

In the wake of the fatality, the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park was scheduled to be closed Monday and Tuesday.

“Out of respect and concern for all parties involved, we will not have further comment until all details have been confirmed,” the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park said in a statement on its Facebook page Saturday. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.”

An incident has occurred on the Haunted Mine Drop ride that resulted in a fatality. An investigation is in progress. Out of respect for all involved, we have no further comment until details have been confirmed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

— Glenwood Caverns (@GlenwoodCaverns) September 6, 2021

A message on the amusement park’s website informs visitors of the fatality, park closures and contact information for refunds.

“An investigation is ongoing,” the message says. “We are deeply saddened and ask that you please keep the family of the deceased in your thoughts and prayers.”

The Haunted Mine Drop, seen here, opened in 2017 and is the “world’s first drop ride to go underground,” according to the amusement park. It was named one of USA Today’s Most Anticipated Theme Park Rides of 2017 and the Best New Theme Park Attraction by USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

Riders must be a minimum height of 46 inches tall — almost 4 feet — and sign a waiver to ride the Haunted Mine Drop, according to the amusement park’s website. There are no age restrictions noted.

The section on the ride has since been removed from the amusement park’s website.

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is billed as the only mountaintop theme park in America.

Other “thrill rides” at the park include the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster, the highest-elevation, full-sized roller coaster in America, at 7,160 feet above sea level, according to the amusement park; the Giant Canyon Swing, located at the edge of a cliff 1,300 feet above the Colorado River; and the Soaring Eagle Zip Ride, which pulls riders 600 feet up the mountain.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.