(TOULUMNE COUNTY, CA) — The parents of a 1-year-old child have been arrested after the child tested positive for fentanyl and THC in California, authorities said.
The incident occurred on April 22 when deputies from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) responded to a report of a medical emergency where a 1-year-old child had reportedly choked and temporarily stopped breathing at a residence near Dutch Mine Road in Jamestown, California, according to a statement from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.
The child was revived on scene, police said, before being taken to a local hospital for evaluation, and later released to their parents.
“The following day, Wednesday, April 23, just before 4:00 in the afternoon, TCSO received a report from Child Welfare Services stating that the child had been brought back to the hospital for a second time on Tuesday by their parents—22-year-old Rory Kerr and 32-year-old Denaun Davis—after becoming unresponsive,” authorities said in their statement regarding the case. “During this visit, the child was administered CPR, successfully resuscitated, and later transferred to an out-of-area hospital for treatment related to Fentanyl poisoning after testing presumptively positive for Fentanyl and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).”
TCSO Detectives “immediately launched an investigation,” authorities said, working on it through the evening into the early morning hours the next day before issuing multiple warrants for the parents of the child.
“Detectives executed the search warrant and located numerous items of drug use paraphernalia containing narcotics residue, along with a used Narcan, inside the motorhome where the family lived,” police said.
During their investigation, officials discovered evidence that one of the child’s parents had administered Narcan during the medical emergency, police said.
Davis and Kerr were arrested and taken to the Dambacher Detention Center, where they were booked on felony child abuse charges, including abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death.
The child involved in this case has since been placed in protective custody.
“We want to remind the public that while Narcan (naloxone) is a critical and often life-saving tool in reversing the effects of opioid overdoses, including those caused by Fentanyl, it is not a substitute for proper medical care,” TCSO said. “Narcan is temporary in nature and can wear off while dangerous levels of narcotics remain in the body. If you or someone else has been exposed to a suspected overdose, it is essential to seek immediate medical attention—even if Narcan appears to have worked. Being honest and forthcoming with emergency responders and healthcare professionals about potential drug exposure is critical to receiving appropriate and timely treatment.”
“We want to thank our community partners including Child Welfare Services and Adventist Health Sonora for their assistance and clear lines of communication which were critical to life-saving measures and a successful investigation,” police said.
This remains an active investigation, and no further details will be released at this time.
(WASHINGTON) — A Catholic school in Oklahoma is asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for it to become the nation’s first religious charter school funded directly by taxpayers.
Oral arguments will be heard in the landmark case on Wednesday, pitting claims of religious freedom against efforts to maintain strict separation of church and state.
The justices will be weighing whether the First Amendment, which prohibits a government role in establishing religion while also protecting an individual right to practice religion, means only nonsectarian organizations can qualify for Oklahoma’s charter schools program or whether faith-based groups are also eligible.
The case turns in large part on whether the state’s charter schools meet the definition of “public” schools and, as such, operate as extensions of state government.
“The claim in this case is not that government schools are allowed to be Catholic or religious. This is a claim that, in Oklahoma, charter schools are contractors,” said Rick Garnett, a constitutional law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was created by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa in 2023, argues state funding for charter schools is made generally available to qualified organizations and that the state cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.
A series of recent Supreme Court decisions has made clear that taxpayer-funded public benefit programs, from school vouchers to state-run scholarships, must be equally available, even if a person or organization has a religious affiliation.
“It’s a pretty settled rule of the Supreme Court that once a government opens up a benefit program, it can’t discriminate on the basis of religion,” Garnett said of the school’s argument.
Oklahoma argues that its charter schools are part of the public school system and, under state law, must be “free, open to all, funded by the State, subject to state control, nondiscriminatory and nonsectarian.” Forty-five other states and the federal government have similar guidelines.
The state’s highest court ruled last year that taxpayer-funded religious schools would violate both the state and U.S. constitutions.
“In Oklahoma, the charter school law defines charter schools as public schools, so the case is sort of closed there,” said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“This school is run by the Catholic diocese in Oklahoma, and they say they will conduct themselves as a Catholic school according to the morality codes of a Catholic schools, which, read between the lines, means that they will discriminate against LGBTQ kids and families,” Laser said.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, said the state supports school choice and access to private religious education, including through the use of tax credits and state-funded tuition assistance. But in court documents, Drummond argued that charter schools are not simply “contractors” receiving a benefit.
“They are free, open to all, subject to anti-discrimination laws, created and funded by the State, and subject to continuing government regulation and oversight as to curriculum, testing, and a host of other matters,” the state said in its brief to the justices.
The state warned that a decision in favor of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would have “sweeping consequences” nationwide, upending charter school programs and the education of millions of students.
Advocates for the school say not allowing the Catholic school to receive charter school funding amounts to religious discrimination.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of June.
(NEW YORK) — A New York county legislature candidate has been missing for almost a week, according to the Nassau County Police Department.
Petros Krommidas, 29, a Democrat running for the Nassau County legislature’s 4th District, was last seen on April 23 in Baldwin, New York, police said.
Police said Krommidas was last seen wearing a camouflage print sweatshirt and gray sweatpants and is believed to be in the area of Long Beach, New York.
“Please keep searching. We need to find him,” Krommidas’ sister, Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas, said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to his family, Krommidas parked his car by the Allegria Hotel in Long Beach, locked his vehicle, grabbed his towel and walked onto the beach to exercise, “just as he had done many times before,” around 10:30 p.m. on April 23.
Krommidas was “always in great shape, and has many future plans,” including participating in a triathlon, his family said in a statement on Monday. He also was “not a stranger to cold water training,” his family said.
He was reported missing on April 24, with the family saying it is “completely out of character” for Krommidas not to respond to messages.
On April 24, police found Krommidas’ towel, clothes and phone left on the beach, officials confirmed to ABC News. Since then, the search efforts have continued, but the family is also encouraging the public to help by walking along the beaches — specifically areas between Long Beach, Lido Beach and Jacob Riis Park — during high tide.
“Every pair of eyes helps. Every step along the beach matters. Thank you for being part of bringing Petey home,” the family said.
Just two days before his disappearance, Krommidas spoke at a meeting for the Nassau County Young Democrats.
Police said anyone with information regarding Krommidas’ whereabouts should contact the Missing Persons Squad at 516-573-7347.
(NEW YORK) — Four individuals are at large after posing as police officers and robbing a deli in New York City, officials said.
On Sunday at approximately 8:14 a.m., police responded to a 911 call of a commercial burglary at a deli in Brooklyn, the NYPD said in a statement provided to ABC News.
When officers arrived on the scene, they were informed “four unidentified individuals had entered a commercial establishment, displayed a firearm and forced a 48-year-old male, a 68-year-old male and a 40-year-old male to the ground,” police said.
The robbery, which was captured on surveillance footage, shows the suspects wearing NYPD jackets and zip-tying the victims.
The individuals fled the scene with a bag of “unknown property” in a dark-colored van in an unknown direction, police said.
Police said there have been no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing. The individuals were described as males with dark complexions, last seen wearing dark-colored clothing, officials said.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the incident, police said.
The United Bodegas of America previously urged the NYPD to conduct live monitoring from every bodega, with a panic button in place at each establishment. Fernando Mateo, spokesperson for the organization, said earlier this month that panic buttons would “give the bodega owner a sense of security.”
“These bodegas are community centers. They are places where people come not only to buy food, they come to socialize, to talk. We need the panic button to become law,” Mateo said on April 18.
The United Bodegas of America is expected to plead once again on Tuesday for officials to instate panic buttons at bodegas.
(CHATHAM, Ill.) — An Illinois community is reeling after an SUV drove into an after-school camp, killing four, but police said the crash does not appear to be targeted.
The driver struck the YNOT After School Camp building in Chatham, just outside of Springfield, on Monday afternoon, killing two 7-year-olds, an 8-year-old and an 18-year-old, according to the Illinois State Police.
Six children were taken to hospitals, including one who remains in critical condition, police said Tuesday.
According to camp founder Jamie Loftus, the SUV drove through a farm field before hitting the east wall of the camp building. The SUV then exited the building on the west side, went across a gravel road and became lodged against a power pole and baseball field fence, Loftus said.
The driver, 44-year-old Marianne Akers of Chatham, is not in custody, police said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but police said it didn’t appear to be targeted. Akers — who was the only person in the vehicle — wasn’t hurt, police said.
“I cannot gather the words to express much of anything that will make sense in print,” Loftus said in a statement. “However, I do know that our families who suffered loss and injury today, are hurting very, very badly. They are friends and their kids are like our kids. The Village of Chatham and Ball Chatham Schools are going to need their populations and that of the outside world to love them, pray for them, think of them.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said, “Our community lost a group of bright and innocent young people with their whole lives ahead of them.”
“Parents said goodbye to their kids this morning not knowing it would be the last time,” he said in a statement. “My heart is heavy for these families and the unimaginable grief they’re experiencing — something that no parent should ever have to endure.”
(NEW YORK) — Severe weather continues to impact the Midwest on Tuesday as intense storms are affecting millions of people.
The atmosphere did not recover well from Monday morning’s severe weather in the region, enabling the storm line to roll through in the later afternoon and evening as millions were impacted by intense weather events.
There were two reported tornadoes, one near Kenyon, Minnesota, where a farm suffered damage, and one near Fall Creek, Wisconsin, where structure damage was also recorded, though no injuries reported.
Other reports include a roof blown off a shed near Morristown, Minnesota, and roof damage to a large commercial warehouse near Kenyon — both of which may be related to the Kenyon but has not yet been fully confirmed.
Ten states reported storm damage from hail, wind and tornadoes, from Texas all the way to the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Elsewhere, hail up to the size of baseballs was reported in parts of Kansas, and hail larger than a baseball was reported in Oklahoma.
Severe storms are still underway on Tuesday morning in northern Texas and Oklahoma as golf ball-sized hail has already been reported early Tuesday in Oklahoma amid numerous severe thunderstorm warnings.
Meanwhile, a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas until 10 a.m. CT.
More than 50 million Americans are in today’s storm zone stretching 14 states from Texas to New York as super cellular storms are expected to begin around 3 p.m. CT along this entire path and continue into the evening hours.
There are two areas of heightened severe potential — an enhanced risk from west Texas to southwest Oklahoma including Midland, Lubbock and Wichita Falls in Texas — and the other from Louisville, Kentucky to near Watertown, New York, encompassing Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Buffalo, though the severe threat is not expected to continue past midnight for the northeastern portion of this system.
However, in Texas and Oklahoma, the severe threat may linger into the early morning hours of Wednesday with the severe potential including severe wind gusts, large to very large hail and a few tornadoes.
Flash flooding could also be a major concern for the Texas and Oklahoma portion of this event.
Given the scenario expected to play out starting Tuesday afternoon and overnight into Wednesday, which includes multiple rounds of very heavy and hours-long thunderstorms over the same consecutive locations, widespread flash flooding is expected.
However, because the ground in this area is already saturated from weekend flooding, this is an even more dire forecast and is primed for numerous potentially life-threatening flash floods.
The topsoil is already full, and streams are already high, meaning the water will have nowhere to go but stay above ground, and it may flood areas that don’t usually see flooding.
On Wednesday, the moderate risk will slide just east, extending from north of Dallas to Branson, Missouri, where there is also a chance for those heavy storms to produce damaging wind, large hail and a few tornadoes.
Meanwhile, a flood watch is in effect from north Texas to central Missouri for more than 6 million Americans across five states until Thursday morning and some areas could see more than 5 inches of rain in a 12-hour period.
(WASHINGTON) — A police SWAT team bursts into a home with little warning, only to quickly realize that it’s the wrong address and the occupants inside are innocent victims of the officers’ mistake.
The scenario has played out in American communities for years — sometimes resulting from bad intelligence, others from inadvertent officer errors — often leaving property damaged and families traumatized.
Legal immunity for cops can mean little restitution.
A major case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday could clear a path for some victims of wrong-house raids to sue for damages under an exception to immunity under federal law.
“It’s just a simple matter of fairness,” said Patrick Jacomo, an attorney with Institute for Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy group litigating the case.
The plaintiffs — Trina Martin, her teenage son Gabe, and ex-partner Toi Cliatt — have spent seven years seeking to sue the FBI for damages after agents mistakenly raided their Atlanta home in 2017.
“I thought someone was breaking in, and it was so chaotic that I thought they had a mission, and the mission was to kill us,” said Martin in an interview with ABC News Live.
Toi Cliatt, who scrambled out of bed at the sound of flash-bang grenades exploding in his living room, described seeking shelter in a closet before the agents detained him.
“They threw me down on the floor and they were interrogating me, and they were asking me questions. And I guess the answers that I was responding to them with didn’t add up,” Cliatt said. “And that’s when I realized that they were in the wrong place.”
“The lead officer came back and he gave us a business card and he apologized and then he left,” said Martin.
The couple said their home sustained $5,000 of damage from burned carpet, broken doors and fractured railings. The emotional trauma is harder to quantify. “It’s countless,” Cliatt said.
Martin’s 7-year-old son Gabe, who sought cover under his bed in terror during the incident, says the experience dramatically altered his life.
“I see the world differently now. I didn’t really have a childhood growing up because of that,” said Gabe, now 13. “So, it really kind of changed me as a person.”
The FBI denied the family’s claims for restitution. The Trump administration, which is defending the agency at the Supreme Court, argues sovereign immunity shields the government from damages claims.
“Cops are human and they make mistakes. And a lot of times the mistakes that are being made are because there’s not enough due diligence, there’s not enough research going into it,” said Anthony Riccio, former First Deputy Superintendent of Chicago Police Department. “The result of it can be devastating for the family impacted.”
Most law enforcement agencies don’t keep track of wrong house raids or publicly report data, legal experts say. Civil Rights advocates estimate hundreds of cases of wrong-house raids nationwide each year; most victims are not compensated for the physical or emotional harm that often results.
“We have a right to be safe in our homes, and when officers are acting bad — for lack of a better word — then individuals have the right to hold them accountable,” said Anjanette Young, a Chicago social worker whose apartment was mistakenly raided by police in 2019.
Young’s case has become one of the most high-profile examples of the problem. Body camera video from the incident captures the 49-year-old handcuffed naked and bewildered in her living room just after 7 p.m. on a Thursday evening.
“You got the wrong house. I live alone!” she is heard on tape pleading with the cops. “Tell me what’s going on!”
Young says it took officers 40 minutes to realize they had the wrong address. They left her without any remedy, she said.
“I’ve been diagnosed with major depression and PTSD, and as a clinician myself, I understand what that means,” she said. “Time does not cure it. It is something that you live with and you have to learn how to manage it.”
A 2023 review by Chicago’s inspector general found that officers had committed at least 21 wrong-house raids over a four-year period. Young sued the city of Chicago and received a nearly $3 million settlement in 2021, but other victims aren’t so lucky.
“The problem with the Anjanette Young case was the information given to the officers was fictitious. A paid informant provided fictitious information in order to get money from the police department,” said Riccio. “When the officers showed up to execute the warrant, they were in the house for seconds before they realized, this is bad information.”
The impacts can be severe.
An Austin, Texas, police SWAT team responding to a gunfight, blew up the front door of Glen and Mindy Shields’ home in 2023 causing thousands of dollars in property damage. The suspect lived across the street. The city denied any wrongdoing and — as is often the case — claimed immunity.
When cops showed up outside Amy Hadley’s home in South Bend, Indiana, in 2022, her teenage son emerged with his hands up as some officers began to openly question whether the suspect lived there. They raided the home anyway. Police later said they had indications the suspect had posted to Facebook from inside.
“Police not only have things like qualified immunity to protect them, but in a case where the police work for the federal government, they have entire doctrines that effectively act like federal immunity,” said Jaicomo.
Trina, Toi and Gabe now hope the Supreme Court will help them pierce that shield.
Congress carved out an exception for federal law enforcement immunity from civil liability suits in 1974 for victims of “assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, or abuse of process” by an officer.
The government denies the exception applies to the Martin case.
“What the Martins are looking for in this case is to be made whole for the mistake that was made by the FBI, but much more broadly than that is to ensure that they might be one of the last families that this happens to in America,” Jaicomo said.
The case comes as advocates for victims of police misconduct and mistakes say President Donald Trump is rolling back guardrails on law enforcement.
The Trump Justice Department has put a freeze on federal civil rights investigations into cops and vowed to reconsider consent decrees with police departments found to have engaged in a pattern of misconduct.
That includes agreements with the cities of Louisville and Minneapolis for police reforms agreed to after the 2020 police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in their respective cities.
“The Justice Department had in recent years been really taking a close look, at where things are going wrong, where you see a pattern of constitutional violations. And what the Trump Justice Department appears to be doing is backing away from that process,” said ACLU legal director Cecilia Wang.
Anjanette Young says communities don’t need to wait for the feds.
In Illinois, she’s lobbying state and local officials for strict new rules on search warrants to prevent cops from raiding the wrong house, including new steps to vet intelligence on a suspect’s location; requiring a 30 second wait after knocking before breaking down a door; and, mandatory use of tactics least intrusive to someone’s home and property.
“It’s not okay to harm people and then not fix the harm,” Young said.
Retired Chicago police officer Riccio agrees. “Whether that’s repairing the damage or providing them with some sort of compensation for what they’ve experienced, yeah, absolutely,” he said.
The Martins say that kind of restitution is the exception rather than the norm. Now, they hope the nation’s highest court will change that.
“For seven long years it felt like they were turning their backs on us,” Martin said. “I felt unheard, and it was easier to just give up, you know? And I didn’t want to give up.”
(PITTSBURGH) — A funeral home director has been charged after allegedly throwing out the bodies of thousands of pets and giving owners the ashes of other animals, collectively charging them over $650,000 in the process, prosecutors said.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced on Monday that Jacob Vereb — owner of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — has been charged with improper disposal of “thousands of dogs and cats” for which owners paid for cremations, burials, returns of ashes, and other services, stealing over $650,000 from customers between 2021 and 2024,” according to a statement from the Pennsylvania’s Attorney General’s Office.
“Vereb took money in exchange for private cremation services, then disposed of many of the pets at a landfill and provided customers with ashes of other, unknown animals,” officials said.
The funeral home, which also worked with human remains, was only alleged by authorities to have defrauded customers who brought in their pets but the investigation identified more than 6,500 victims from Allegheny, Armstrong, Washington and Westmoreland counties, officials continued.
”This case is disturbing, and will cause devastation and heartache for many Pennsylvanians,” Attorney General Sunday said. “Our pets are members of our families, and this defendant betrayed and agonized pet owners who entrusted him to provide dignified services for their beloved cats and dogs. I commend our investigative team for a comprehensive review of voluminous records which uncovered this long-running pattern of theft and deception.”
Due to the vast numbers of people affected, the Office of Attorney General has launched a website to engage with victims where victims can provide their contact information, share victim impact statements, and receive updates on the criminal case. The website will also help concerned citizens to determine if they are victims in this case, officials said.
“Nearly a dozen veterinary practices and businesses worked with the Office of Attorney General to confirm that Vereb collected at least $657,517 in fees from pet owners who were promised a private cremation for their pet, but did not receive the actual ashes of their pet,” the Attorney General’s Office said. “Eternity Pet Memorial received the pets directly from consumers or through area veterinarians.”
Vereb, 70, was charged on Monday with felony counts of theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and deceptive business practices after surrendering Monday afternoon and was arraigned on the charges. He was released on his own recognizance, officials said.
(NANWALEK, ALASKA) — Two people are dead and another was seriously injured following a plane crash in Alaska on Monday, the Alaska Department of Public Safety told ABC News.
No details have been released as to what caused the crash.
“The Alaska State Troopers are on scene of a plane crash in Nanwalek,” the Alaska DPS said in a statement on Monday night. “Two adults were killed in the incident and one adult was seriously injured and medevaced to an Anchorage area hospital.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(CHATHAM, IL) — Four minors are dead after a vehicle crashed into a building hosting an after-school camp in Chatham, Illinois, officials announced at a press conference on Monday afternoon. They ranged in age from 4 to 18 years old, according to a statement from the Illinois State Police.
Multiple others were injured in the incident, which took place shortly after 3 p.m. on Monday. The extent of their injuries is unknown, though several were hospitalized and one was airlifted from the scene of the accident.
The car struck three individuals outside of the YNOT (Youth Needing Other Things) Outdoors Summer Camp, and a fourth person was killed inside, according to Chatham Police Department.
Authorities described the situation as chaotic and urged families to use the reunification site to speed up the victim identification process.
“The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was uninjured and transported to an area hospital for evaluation,” the ISP statement said.
Police said the driver is considered a suspect, though no charges or arrests have been announced. Their identity has not yet been released.
“Our community lost a group of bright and innocent young people with their whole lives ahead of them,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement posted on X on Monday night.
“Parents said goodbye to their children this morning not knowing it would be the last time,” the statement continued. “My heart is heavy for these families and the unimaginable grief they’re experiencing — something that no parent should ever have to endure.”
Pritzker added that his office was monitoring the situation and he thanked first responders for assisting.
The ISP is working with the CPD to investigate, they said in a statement on Monday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
