(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A man accused of trespassing at the home of the Memphis, Tennessee, mayor has been charged with attempted kidnapping and stalking, according to police, who said the suspect had a Taser, gloves, rope and duct tape in his vehicle at the time of his arrest.
The suspect was apprehended and charged after police investigated “suspicious activity” in Mayor Paul Young’s neighborhood, the Memphis Police Department said Wednesday.
“On Sunday night, around 9:30 pm, a man jumped a wall leading into our subdivision,” Young said in a statement. “We now know that he walked straight to our home, knocking on the door with gloves on, a full pocket, and a nervous demeanor.”
Surveillance footage showed that the individual went directly to the mayor’s residence upon scaling the wall and did not approach any other home in the neighborhood, according to the Memphis Police Department.
The suspect — 25-year-old Trenton Abston — has been charged with attempted kidnapping, stalking and aggravated criminal trespass, police said. He is detained at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, online jail records show. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The Memphis Police Department credited the “rapid response” of its officers and the surveillance footage throughout the neighborhood with quickly identifying, locating and arresting the suspect.
“We understand the concerns raised by this incident and want to reassure the public that the Memphis Police Department remains fully committed to the safety of all residents, including our city’s elected officials,” the department said in a press release. “We take any potential threat seriously and will continue to act swiftly and thoroughly.”
The incident comes amid heightened concerns over violence against elected officials, after two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot on Saturday in what prosecutors called “political assassinations.” Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed, and Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded in the attacks.
Young, who has served as Memphis’ mayor since January 2024, cited the Minnesota shootings while making a plea that political violence “cannot become our norm.”
“In today’s climate, especially after the tragic events in Minnesota and the threats my wife and I often receive online, none of us can be too careful,” Young said in a statement on Instagram while sharing a photo of him and his family. “The link between angry online rhetoric and real-life violence is becoming undeniable.”
“Let’s do better,” he added. “Let’s raise our discourse, reduce the hate, and protect one another — no matter our beliefs. Let’s reclaim our strength as one community. Let’s choose love.”
Leah Lendel was snorkeling near Boca Grande on June 11 when “something hard bit me and then tried to tug me away,” she said at a news conference Thursday alongside her parents and the doctors who treated her.
“Then I pick up my hand and it’s all in blood,” Leah said. “Then I started screaming with my mom.”
“There was so much blood in the water right next to me,” Leah’s mom, Nadia Lendel, said at the news conference. “In an instant, I knew it’s a shark attack.”
“I just started to scream to my husband,” Nadia Lendel recalled. Meanwhile, Leah’s “instincts kicked in” and she ran out of the water, her mom said.
“Then my dad was with me,” Leah said. “He picked me up and we ran to the road.”
Leah’s parents expressed their gratitude for the construction workers who were eating lunch on the beach and immediately ran to help them call 911 and put Leah’s arm in a tourniquet. Leah’s dad said EMS then responded within minutes.
Tampa General Hospital doctors praised the first responders for choosing to fly the two hours in the helicopter to their hospital where they said they had the expertise to help Leah within the six-hour window to save the tendons, tissue and muscle.
Doctors said they operated on Leah’s hand less than an hour after she came through the hospital doors.
At the hospital, “I was trying to hold myself together,” said Leah’s dad, Jay Lendel. “I think I was crying more than she was.”
Tampa General Hospital Dr. Alfred Hess said luckily a shark bite is not jagged, but leaves a clean cut on the wrist that doesn’t ruin all the tissue.
First Leah’s bone was stabilized and then doctors said they worked on blood flow. Some blood vessels were taken from Leah’s leg to help get blood flow back to her hand, the doctors said.
Leah will next undergo physical therapy, her doctors said, and eventually the pins in her hand will be removed.
“I’m just thankful for everybody,” Jay Lendel said. “I’m just very thankful she’s alive.”
Meanwhile, another shark bite was reported on Tuesday on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The victim suffered a non-life-threatening injury to the leg and was airlifted to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia, according to the Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue.
There were 28 unprovoked shark bites in the U.S. last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. Florida recorded the most with 14; South Carolina had two.
Just one shark attack in the U.S. last year — which occurred in Hawaii — was fatal, ISAF said.
Antoinette Reeder (left), Shae Anderson (center) and Audrey Kray have documented what they say are unhealthy living conditions in privatized military housing. ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Moving cross-country from the Carolinas to California, the Reeder family looked forward to its next assignment in San Diego in the summer of 2022. The couple had originally met in California.
But in the first week, after the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and his family had settled into their new home, they had to move out and into a hotel temporarily.
“The first thing you know, military families want to see is, where can my furniture fit?” Antoinette Reeder, whose husband has served for nearly 19 years, told ABC News. Before they unloaded any furniture, Reeder said she started to notice an ant infestation and a strong musty smell coming from the bathroom. She said that was her first hint that mold could be in the home.
Reeder said she knew the smell because she faced similar issues in their former military housing on the East Coast.
“I already knew the protocol,” Reeder said. “[…] When we moved in here, though, we were given a card that said that our home was inspected by a military housing inspector. And it was passed off. It was checked with the box that it passed. And it was just astonishing to me.”
“If it’s happening in all of these different places, this has gotta be a really big issue,” Reeder said.
Issues, such as water intrusion and mold, within their privatized military-provided housing has caused eight home remediations for the family in nearly three years, Reeder said. The repairs are often disruptive. The family says their children have suffered from rashes and respiratory issues.
Reeder said she feels healthier and breathes easier when she leaves her home. She has had her home tested independently for mold and used moisture meters to monitor conditions firsthand.
“My husband’s command has been very helpful, but they’re not involved,” said Reeder, outlining the rigorous process to file disputes involving a series of offices with both the military advocates and private companies that extends beyond servicemembers’ direct leadership.
Some families dealing with similar issues say they often have to pay out of their pockets for expenses that result from displacements. This is a problem currently for Shae Anderson, another military spouse of a Navy chief petty officer, also located in San Diego.
Anderson said her family is in its third housing remediation in a home they moved into in October 2024. They have lived through the disruptions of other home repairs while stationed at military installations. She said her youngest child struggles with rashes and conjunctivitis, which she believes may be caused by exposure to mold in their military homes. Other members of her family have struggled with respiratory symptoms, Anderson added.
“Our experiences have been traumatizing, and we have had so many disruptions to our quality of life,” Anderson told ABC News. “Our children have had to move schools, my husband’s career has been impacted and our family has suffered so much financial loss due to it all.”
While living in San Diego, Anderson and Reeder met and bonded over a common problem, mold in their homes. Along with the two women, Audrey Kray, the wife of a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, has also been involved in bringing awareness through the nonprofit, “Safe Military Housing Initiative.” The military wives have binders documenting deteriorating conditions and what they describe as substandard housing.
Anderson’s son drew a heart on her notebook binder, which she says, “it’s just a little reminder, every time I go to my notebook and I’m going through and reliving the horror experience we’ve been through, the reason that I’m fighting. And that’s for my kids. I also want every service member and their family to have a safe home.”
These families have lived in homes managed by Liberty Military Housing, the largest employee-owned and Navy and Marine Corps housing provider.
“In my instance, it shouldn’t have taken four homes, three moves, two displacements over 15 months. That should have been day one for us,” said Kray.
“It’s very challenging when husbands are deployed or off on training and you’re going through these housing experiences,” Kray said.
All three women have worked with military advocates who lean on the private housing companies that own these homes to come and fix the problems.
Liberty, their landlord, have offered each family new housing while remediating their properties, but they keep facing similar housing issues, the families said.
The military spouses also told ABC News that the disruption of having to pack again and change homes alone is a challenge after moving bases and assignments. In one instance, Reeder said she noticed mold behind vanities that were being replaced by contractors, alarming her and prompting assistance from the district office and an environmental team to conduct tests.
The issues date back nearly three decades, to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative of 1996. When the Department of Defense got out of the housing business with the MHPI, it was trying to solve a major problem. Government reports from the time showed that a majority of military homes already needed significant repairs. The agreements with the private industry were made because those housing companies offered better expertise than the U.S. military to renovate or replace inadequate housing. And according to congressional research, the government gave the companies contracts that are sometimes 50 years long, to incentivize the massive undertaking. In creating the agreements, the privatized contracts affect how far the government can push these companies to take certain actions today.
In 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office identified several unresolved concerns with the Military Housing Privatization Initiative. One of them was the need for a more formal dispute resolution process. GAO also raised that some of the private housing companies may be lacking compliance with elements of the Tenant Bill of Rights established in 2020, among other recommendations.
“I know firsthand that our warfighters cannot deliver if they are sidelined by problems at home, especially those that can negatively affect health and quality of life,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Dale Marks said in a statement to ABC News. “Secretary Hegseth and I are committed to rebuilding military readiness and appreciate the support from Congressional committees to make much-needed housing reforms.”
Today, there are about 14 private companies with MHPI contracts that provide about 200,000 homes for service members and their families.
Through what’s called the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), the majority of servicemembers receive a tax-free housing allowance, which helps them cover the cost of rent. BAH rates vary due to rank, whether the servicemember has dependents, and the geographical location of the current duty assignment.
Current BAH policies are intended to cover 95% of estimated home costs in the civilian market, but in most cases, the money stretches the farthest in military housing, compared to housing for rent in the civilian world. Some DOD officials and military families have questioned whether the BAH rates for some locations are enough, according to congressional research conducted in 2023.
For many of these families dealing with mold and other issues, they feel they can’t afford to leave military housing.
“We would have to move very far away from where my husband works in order to afford anything,” said Reeder, who raised concerns with the rising costs of the housing market in Southern California.
These military wives said factors like commute time, distance from medical providers and school districts influence families’ decisions to stay in the surrounding base area, in addition to the benefit of community living near other servicemembers and their families.
In response to the experiences of these families in San Diego, the chief executive officer Philip Rizzo of Liberty Military Housing told ABC News in an interview, “We’re not profiting off military families by cutting corners.”
Rizzo stressed that these complaints are not the “norm” with properties under Liberty’s management.
“I think the challenge with 36,000 homes nationwide is if we’re 99% right, that means there is 360 families that aren’t having a good experience. That’s a large number, right?” Rizzo said. “And I would expect if we’re 1/10 of 1% that’s a large number, and our goal is to be zero. We want everybody to be satisfied. We want everybody to be happy in their home.”
As an Army veteran and son of a career U.S. Air Force officer, who grew up in military housing, Rizzo emphasized he didn’t want anyone living in an environment where they are becoming sick. He emphasized that since the 2019 congressional hearings about these concerns, the government has added more oversight over companies like Liberty, focusing on identifying gaps in the repair processes.
He says Liberty Military Housing has since implemented new training for its workers and contractors, and says the company has an average maintenance response time that beats anything in the civilian world. He also points out that his tenants have a formal dispute process internally and can also be navigated with a military resident advocate.
“We’re going to do what we can, following industry guidance and guidelines to eliminate any hazards or risk in the home,” Rizzo said.
Rizzo told ABC News that he knows there will be challenges with both new builds and older houses. He said Liberty Military Housing is committed to responding quickly and effectively to minimize disruption for families.
Reeder hopes for change. “This isn’t just us complaining about ‘we have mold’ and ‘our house is dirty,'” she said. “We have scientific results showing this is a problem and it’s affecting our health.”
Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife are crediting their daughter Hope for “saving countless other lives” on the night the couple was shot and wounded at their home in what prosecutors called an assassination attempt.
“Without Hope, we wouldn’t be here right now,” the Democratic state senator and his wife said in a statement on Wednesday, according to Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP. “Our daughter’s quick instincts and wherewithal to state that her dad is Senator John Hoffman when she called 911 led the police getting to the Hortman’s so quickly and saving countless other lives.”
Vance Boelter is accused of shooting and wounding John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their house in Champlin, Minnesota, as well as shooting and killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in nearby Brooklyn Park early Saturday morning, authorities said. Boelter allegedly showed up to their doors impersonating a police officer, officials said.
But two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings, according to acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson.
After Boelter allegedly shot the Hoffmans, prosecutors said he drove to a state representative’s house in Maple Grove. That lawmaker was not home as she and her family were on vacation, Thompson said, and Boelter left the scene.
Boelter then allegedly drove to a state senator’s home in New Hope and parked on the street, Thompson said.
After learning of the shooting at Hoffman’s home, New Hope police dispatched an officer to the New Hope lawmaker’s house, Thompson said. When the officer arrived, she saw Boelter’s car parked down the block and she believed Boelter was an officer dispatched to the scene, Thompson said.
The officer pulled up next to Boelter, rolled down her window and tried to speak with him, but he did not respond and stared straight ahead, Thompson said. So the New Hope officer drove to the state senator’s home and waited for other law enforcement, and by that time, Boelter had left the scene, Thompson said.
When two Brooklyn Park officers arrived at the Hortmans’, they saw Boelter’s SUV in the driveway with emergency lights flashing and Boelter standing in front of the house, Thompson said.
Boelter saw the officers and allegedly started shooting and running into the house, killing Melissa Hortman and her husband, Thompson said.
The officers fired at Boelter as he allegedly rushed into the home, Thompson said, but the suspect escaped into the house and out the back.
Boelter, who was arrested Sunday night, allegedly had a list of 45 elected officials in notebooks in his car, Thompson said.
He faces federal charges including stalking and firearms charges and state charges including first-degree murder, officials said.
The Hoffmans are recovering from their injuries. John Hoffman was shot nine times and Yvette was shot eight times, Yvette said, according to a message released by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
(SEATTLE) — A fugitive who has been on the run for more than six weeks after escaping authorities at an airport while being transported across state lines has been captured, authorities said.
The incident began almost seven weeks ago on May 4 when 29-year-old Sedric Stevenson was in the custody of contracted agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was being transported to Kentucky so he could face outstanding warrants that had been issued to him there when he vanished, according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Office of Public Affairs in the Western District of Washington.
Stevenson, who was wanted in the State of Kentucky on multiple charges — including convicted felon in possession of a firearm, assault in the third degree and enhanced possession of a controlled substance in the first degree (methamphetamine) — subsequently managed to avoid law enforcement for 45 days before he was caught on Wednesday in Seattle by U.S. Marshals while they were serving an arrest warrant in the 1400 block of Madison Street, police said.
“This arrest sends a clear message: no matter how long it takes or how far someone runs, justice will catch up with them. Our deputies and taskforce officers worked tirelessly and with unwavering dedication to bring Stevenson back into custody. The community can rest easier, knowing a dangerous fugitive is no longer on the streets” said U.S. Marshal Donrien Stephens.
Stevenson’s arrest was a collaborative effort between state and local partners along with the U.S. Marshals Service Western Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, officials said.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Newly surfaced bodycam footage from last year shows an interview with a woman claiming to be a DoorDash driver, who says she saw murder suspect Bryan Kohberger while she was dropping off food just moments before police say four University of Idaho college students were slain in 2022.
In the video, the woman, who is wrapped in a gray blanket, is being questioned in a holding facility in Pullman, Washington, in connection with an unrelated incident.
The woman in the video claims she dropped off food at the King Road home in Moscow, Idaho, shortly before Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death.
In the video, the woman is heard saying, “Now I have to testify in that big murder case here, ’cause I’m the DoorDash driver.”
When asked to clarify which case, she says, the “murder case with the college girls … I’m the DoorDash driver. I saw Bryan there. I parked next to him.”
Idaho authorities have said it was Kernodle who placed the order and received her delivery around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. Police believe the murders took place shortly after — between 4:07 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.
Cmdr. Ruben Harris, with the Pullman Police Department, confirmed to ABC News that the bodycam video is authentic and that it was taken in September 2024. The woman’s charge was amended to first-degree negligent driving, and she pleaded guilty, according to authorities.
Pullman is located about 10 miles west of Moscow.
Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the murders, was arrested in December 2022. He’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, and a not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf.
(BOSTON) — A Massachusetts jury found Karen Read not guilty of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022, nearly a year after her first prosecution ended in a mistrial.
The jury began deliberating the afternoon of June 13 in Norfolk County before reaching a verdict Wednesday afternoon.
She was acquitted of the most serious charges, including second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene after an accident resulting in death.
The jury did find her guilty of operating under the influence of liquor. The judge immediately sentenced her to one-year probation, the standard for a first-time offense.
Cheers could be heard from outside the courthouse, where supporters of Read have gathered, while the verdict was being read. Read embraced her legal team and cried following the verdict.
Prosecutors alleged Read hit her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her car outside the Canton home of fellow police officer Brian Albert in January 2022 and then left him to die there during a major blizzard.
The defense had argued that Read’s vehicle did not hit O’Keefe and instead said O’Keefe was attacked by a dog and beaten by other people who were in the house before he was thrown out in the snow to die.
Read pleaded not guilty to the charges and has maintained her innocence.
Following the verdict, several of the witnesses who testified against Read called the result of the retrial “a devastating miscarriage of justice.”
“Today, our hearts are with John and the entire O’Keefe family. They have suffered through so much and deserved better from our justice system,” members of the Albert and McCabe families said in a statement. “While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John’s family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media.”
During deliberations, the jury asked four questions, including, “If we find not guilty on two charges but can’t agree on one charge, is it a hung jury on all three charges or just one charge?” the judge told attorneys in court.
The judge told the jury she is not able to respond to their question, telling attorneys it was a “theoretical question.”
The jury also asked about the time frame for when Read is accused of driving under the influence, whether video clips from Read’s interviews about the case are to be considered as evidence and if she is convicted on a sub-charge, if that would mean she is guilty on the overall charge.
In an unusual moment, Judge Beverly Cannone told the courtroom earlier Wednesday that the jury had indicated during the lunch break that they had reached a verdict, then updated that they did not have a verdict. Cannone sealed that verdict slip and informed the court that there was not yet a verdict “because, as we all know, there is no verdict until it is announced and recorded in open court.”
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July 2024 after the jury could not reach a verdict.
At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year have confirmed that she was found not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, according to Read’s attorneys. However, the jury could not agree on the third charge of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, the attorneys said.
Her lawyers filed multiple appeals, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming Read should not be retried on the counts the jury apparently agreed on, saying it would amount to double jeopardy. Each appeal was denied.
Read’s attorneys made motions for a mistrial twice during her second criminal trial, both of which were denied by the judge.
Like her first trial, Read did not take the stand in her own defense.
“I am not testifying,” Read said to reporters outside the courthouse on June 10. “[The jury has] heard my interview clips. They’ve heard my voice. They’ve heard a lot of me.”
Read had added one of the alternate jurors from her first trial to her legal team for the retrial. Victoria George, the alternate juror, is a licensed civil attorney in Massachusetts.
(NEW YORK) — Air India announced on Wednesday it will reduce international service on widebody aircraft by 15% starting June 20 through at least mid-July.
The decision comes less than a week after an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members en route to the United Kingdom crashed into a building shortly after takeoff on June 12, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said at the time.
The airline said it’s reducing service due to the safety inspection of aircraft and ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which have disrupted operations, resulting in 83 flight cancellations over the past six days.
“Given the compounding circumstances that Air India is facing, to ensure stability of our operations, better efficiency and to minimise inconvenience to passengers, Air India has decided to reduce its international services on widebody aircraft by 15% for the next few weeks,” the airline said in a press release.
Passengers will have the option to either reschedule their flights at no additional cost or receive a full refund.
Air India also said 26 out of the 33 Dreamliners in its fleet have now been returned to service following the required safety inspections by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The airline is also performing “enhanced safety checks” on its Boeing 777 fleet as a precaution and is cooperating with authorities.
The victims of the deadly Air India crash included 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials.
Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and received treatment, hospital officials said at the time. The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers, was the sole survivor who was aboard the aircraft during the crash.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport, in India’s Gujarat state, the city’s Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said at the time.
Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
This plane had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, which is considered average for this aircraft, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
(BOSTON) — A Massachusetts jury has reached a verdict in the retrial of Karen Read, who is accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022, nearly a year after her first prosecution ended in a mistrial.
The jury began deliberating the afternoon of June 13 in Norfolk County before reaching a verdict Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors allege Read hit her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her car outside the Canton home of fellow police officer Brian Albert in January 2022 and then left him to die there during a major blizzard.
The defense has argued that Read’s vehicle did not hit O’Keefe and instead said O’Keefe was attacked by a dog and beaten by other people who were in the house before he was thrown out in the snow to die.
Read pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, leaving a scene of personal injury and death, and manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and has maintained her innocence.
During deliberations, the jury asked four questions, including, “If we find not guilty on two charges but can’t agree on one charge, is it a hung jury on all three charges or just one charge?” the judge told attorneys in court.
The judge told the jury she is not able to respond to their question, telling attorneys it was a “theoretical question.”
The jury also asked about the time frame for when Read is accused of driving under the influence, whether video clips from Read’s interviews about the case are to be considered as evidence and if she is convicted on a sub-charge, if that would mean she is guilty on the overall charge.
In an unusual moment, Judge Beverly Cannone told the courtroom earlier Wednesday that the jury had indicated during the lunch break that they had reached a verdict, then updated that they did not have a verdict. Cannone sealed that verdict slip and informed the court that there was not yet a verdict “because, as we all know, there is no verdict until it is announced and recorded in open court.”
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July 2024 after the jury could not reach a verdict.
At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year have confirmed that she was found not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, according to Read’s attorneys. However, the jury could not agree on the third charge of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, the attorneys said.
Her lawyers filed multiple appeals, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming Read should not be retried on the counts the jury apparently agreed on, saying it would amount to double jeopardy. Each appeal was denied.
Read’s attorneys made motions for a mistrial twice during her second criminal trial, both of which were denied by the judge.
Like her first trial, Read did not take the stand in her own defense.
“I am not testifying,” Read said to reporters outside the courthouse on June 10. “[The jury has] heard my interview clips. They’ve heard my voice. They’ve heard a lot of me.”
