(HENDERSON, Nev.) — Police searched a home in the Las Vegas area on Monday night in the long-dormant murder case of Tupac Shakur, according to a law enforcement source.
“LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation,” Las Vegas police said in a statement. “We will have no further comment at this time.”
The celebrated hip-hop artist was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas and died in the hospital six days later from his injuries at the age of 25. No arrests have been made.
During his short but prolific career, he sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including the diamond-certified album “All Eyez on Me,” which included the hit “California Love (Remix).”
Tupac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(IDAHO FALLS, Idaho) — A woman visiting Yellowstone National Park was hospitalized Monday after being gored by a bison, National Park Service officials said.
The unidentified 47-year-old tourist from Phoenix was walking with another person near the Lake Lodge Cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone when they saw two bison, according to NPS.
Officials said the two visitors turned around and tried to walk away, but one bison charged at them and gored the woman.
“The woman sustained significant injuries to her chest and abdomen and was transported by helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center,” NPS said in a statement.
Park officials did not provide an update on the wounded tourist’s condition.
It was unknown how close the visitors were to the bison when it charged. The investigation is ongoing, according to the NPS.
This is the first reported bison attack against a park visitor since June 2022, the NPS said.
Last month, the NPS put out warnings following a string of human encounters with Yellowstone wildlife that were going viral on social media.
In one video posted in May, a woman was seen getting close to a bison and taking a selfie, which park officials said was dangerous given the animal’s unpredictable movements and actions. The agency noted that bison can run three times faster than humans.
Visitors are advised to “stay more than 25 yards away from all large animals – bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes – and at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves,” NPS said.
“During mating season (rut) from mid-July through mid-August, bison can become agitated more quickly. Use extra caution and give them additional space during this time,” NPS said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — As Canada continues to battle its worst wildfire season on record, toxic smoke has traveled south and is once again blanketing states across the U.S.
A total of 18 states are under air quality alerts on Tuesday, stretching from Montana to New York and as far south as Georgia, according to AirNow, an air quality website run by a partnership between the federal government and state and local air quality agencies.
Washington, D.C., and New York City were among the top 10 worst air quality rankings in the world on Tuesday morning, according to IQAir, a website that publishes air quality data around the world.
While moderate surface smoke was still hanging over portions of the much of the East on Tuesday morning, it will lighten as the day goes on, forecasts show.
Light to moderate surface smoke will linger in some areas through the middle of the week.
There are more than 900 active fires in Canada now, with nearly 600 of them deemed “out of control” by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
The fires in 2023 have already have already burned more than 26 million acres in Canada — more than 850% of normal and far surpassing the previous record set in 1995 of 17.5 million acres burned. There are still months to go in the fire season.
The Canadian wildfires began far earlier than usual and have been causing air quality concerns in the U.S. since May.
Vulnerable groups, such as children, teenagers, senior citizens, pregnant people and those with heart or lung disease, stay indoors and that people who travel outdoors consider wearing masks.
This is because wildfire smoke is made up of several toxins, including fine particulate matter — known as PM2.5 — which is 30 times smaller in diameter than a human hair.
These particles are too small to be seen with the naked eye and can be breathed deep into the body, entering the nose and throat and traveling to the lungs.
PM2.5 can cause short-term health effects, even for healthy people, including irritation of the eyes, nose and throat; coughing, sneezing; and shortness of breath. It can also cause long-term effects such as asthma and heart disease.
Canada may not be the only country in North America that has to battle wildfires. Red flag warnings went into effect Monday for much of eastern Washington and parts of Oregon and Colorado due to dry air, dry ground, and breezy conditions.
Combined with low humidity and strong winds, the conditions are prime for fires to be sparked and to grow rather quickly.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.
An emergency slide fell from a plane and landed outside of a home near O’Hare Airport in Chicago, July 17, 2023. — Laura Devitt
(CHICAGO) — It wasn’t a bird or a plane hurtling from the sky, although it did fall from the latter.
The Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating after a Chicago resident found an aircraft emergency escape slide in his backyard just after noon on Monday.
The inflatable slide, which is believed to have fallen from a United Airlines flight from Zurich, Switzerland, fell onto the roof of a northwest Chicago home, which suffered minor damage from the impact.
“My father-in-law and my son are having lunch in the kitchen, and they hear a loud boom on the side of the wall,” homeowner Patrick Devitt told ABC affiliate WLS.
Surveillance footage from a nearby home showed the large slide plummeting from the sky.
Devitt told WLS that he found the silver-colored plastic slide in his backyard and dragged it to the street.
“When it’s all stretched out…it’s larger than a small car. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell,” Devitt said. He also said he called 911, after which FAA officials arrived to investigate.
Meanwhile, miles away at Chicago O’Hare Airport, maintenance workers discovered that an emergency evacuation slide was missing from United Airlines Flight 12, a Boeing 767 that had recently landed following a flight from Zurich, Switzerland, according to the FAA. Devitt told WLS that United Airlines representatives came to his house later Monday to retrieve the slide.
United Airlines confirmed that the flight was carrying 155 customers and 10 crew. United Airlines said in a statement that immediately contacted the FAA, which is not investigating the matter.
No injuries were reported on the ground where the slide landed or onboard the aircraft, but the incident startled residents who live below the flight paths to O’Hare.
“Just seeing that in my backyard, I was like ‘Wow, this really happened,’” Devitt said. “This fell off an airplane and landed in our backyard.”
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule and Chris Looft contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Scorching temperatures continue to shatter records amid a relentless heat wave across the United States.
Monday marked the 18th consecutive day that temperatures at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded in Arizona’s capital, tying a record that was set in 1974. A high of 116 degrees was reported at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, tying a record for the same date set in 2005, according to the National Weather Service. The city is expected to break the all-time record for the longest hot streak on Tuesday.
Phoenix shattered another record for going eight straight days without overnight temperatures dipping below 90 degrees. Monday night’s 95 degrees was just shy of the record warmest low of 96 degrees set in 2003. The city is expected to continue with the record-setting trend.
Meanwhile, heat index values in Miami, Florida, reached 109 degrees on Monday, marking the 16th consecutive day that they were at or above 105 degrees. That doubled the city’s previous record of eight straight days set in 2017.
Temperatures have been at or above 100 degrees in El Paso, Texas, for the past 32 days with no end in sight. A high of 109 degrees was reported on Monday, breaking the city’s previous daily record of 106 degrees set in 1980.
Grand Junction, Colorado, saw a high of 107 degrees on Monday, breaking its previous daily record of 104 degrees set in 1971. That also tied the all-time heat record for the area set in 2021.
Temperatures hit 101 degrees in Casper, Wyoming, on Monday, breaking the city’s previous daily record of 99 degrees set in 1977.
Overall, Earth has seen its 15 hottest days on record in the past 15 days. In other words, global temperatures have yet to return to levels recorded prior to July 3. The sweltering trend is expected to continue.
The latest forecast shows hot temperatures will persist for a swath of the U.S. on Tuesday, with 72 million people across 15 states under heat alerts from California to Florida, including the entire state of Louisiana.
Both heat index values and temperatures are expected to reach the 100s in the South again on Tuesday.
This week, heat index values and temperatures in the 120s are forecast to continue for California’s Death Valley while 110s continue for Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Heat index values are expected to remain in the 110s for Corpus Christi, Texas.
Rex Heuermann is shown in this booking photo released by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. — Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department
(NEW YORK) — More than 200 firearms were found at the home of the suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders, officials said.
Rex A. Heuermann, 59, a Manhattan architect, was arrested in Manhattan last week and charged with three first-degree murders.
“We wanted to take him into custody somewhere outside the house, because of access to those weapons,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told ABC News.
Heuermann has been charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found covered in burlap along Ocean Parkway on Long Island’s South Shore in December 2010. He was also named the “prime suspect” in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a fourth woman discovered in the same spot, police said.
The guns explain why police would have chosen to arrest him away from home, former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America on Tuesday.
Investigators would have searched databases and discovered that Heuermann had dozens of gun permits, Boyce said.
“You don’t want to go into that house — you want to take him off premise,” Boyce said. “This way it’s safer for everybody.”
Investigators were on Tuesday digging into Heuermann’s life and checking to see if they could tie him to unsolved murders or missing persons cases throughout New York state, an NYPD official told ABC News.
The suspect’s DNA has been entered into a statewide database, available to all law enforcement agencies in New York.
Heuermann’s defense attorney, Michael Brown, said in a statement Monday: “There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents. And while the government has decided to focus on him despite more significant and stronger leads, we are looking forward to defending him in a court of law before a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys and the special counsel who indicted him over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House are set to convene in federal court Tuesday for a key hearing on how classified materials will be shared between the parties as the case moves towards trial.
While the hearing is mostly a routine conference in the pretrial process for any case involving classified information, special counsel Jack Smith’s office described it in a recent filing as a “crucial step” in their prosecution of Trump and his codefendant, longtime aide Walt Nauta.
At the top of the agenda will be hashing out how the national security law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA, will impact the case in the months ahead — balancing Trump and Nauta’s due process rights with the national security interests surrounding the highly classified materials that Trump is alleged to have unlawfully held onto after leaving the White House.
Trump was charged last month with 37 felony counts over his alleged unlawful retention of classified documents and his alleged efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation, while Nauta faces six counts of various obstruction-related offenses. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Thirty-one of the counts against Trump relate to specific documents he’s alleged to have unlawfully retained under the Espionage Act, which in the indictment are detailed by the government in broad terms under their specific classification markings, and include a general description of their contents and the dates they were allegedly unlawfully in Trump’s custody.
Leading up to Trump’s indictment, it was revealed in court filings that the government had taken custody of more than 320 documents with classification markings in Trump’s possession, from his first handover of materials to the National Archives in January of 2022, his legal team’s response to a subpoena from the DOJ months later, and the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago resort last August.
All of those documents, comprising thousands of pages, will ultimately be relevant to Trump’s case and the discovery process, as the government works to determine what it will share with Trump or Nauta’s attorneys — and ultimately a jury.
CIPA sets forth a process to resolve disputes prior to trial when classified information is at issue in a case, while protecting interests of national security. It will be ultimately be left to the judge to decide what the government should be obligated to share in discovery and what is ultimately admissible at trial — though if the government disagrees with how the judge rules on a particular classified discovery issue, they have the ability to appeal.
According to Brian Greer, a former attorney in the CIA’s Office of General Counsel, this is where the primary purposes of CIPA will come into play.
“One is to prevent the practice of ‘graymail,’ where a defendant could basically threaten to expose secrets at trial in an attempt to coerce the government into dropping the case,” Greer said. “The second is to provide an orderly pretrial process for determining the use, relevance, and admissibility of classified information at trial.”
Like other elements of the government’s case against Trump, the scope of classified material will likely enter uncharted territory. Prosecutors frequently bring cases against former officials who stand accused of mishandling classified information — but never before has a case been brought against a figure who had declassification authority.
Trump and his legal team have already suggested publicly that the records in question were not classified, citing Trump’s authority as president to declassify them. His legal team has been reluctant to make that argument in court, however.
Regardless of the merit of that argument, David Aaron, a former national security prosecutor in the Justice Department, said it could add another layer of complexity to an already onerous process.
“The wrinkle is that the defense appears to be challenging whether the information at issue is classified,” Aaron said. “That isn’t uncommon — except most defendants aren’t the former president. If someone who actually had the authority to declassify information says, ‘That’s not classified, and I know that because I personally declassified it’ — I don’t know how that would proceed.”
Despite Trump’s claims, most experts agree that declassifying documents isn’t as easy as waving a magic wand, and that it can’t be done in secret.
The arbiter of these and other issues will be U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointee assigned to oversee the case. Tuesday’s hearing will be the first before Cannon, who has demonstrated sympathy for Trump’s legal arguments in previous related matters before her court.
The 42-year-old judge appointed a “special master” last year to review the materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and some legal experts accused Cannon of handing Trump a series of head-scratching victories over the course of those proceedings.
In one instance, Cannon restricted the FBI from using the seized classified documents as part of their ongoing probe until the review was completed. That order was ultimately thrown out in its entirety by an 11th Circuit Court of appeals panel, which found she overstepped her jurisdiction in the probe.
In addition to the thorny CIPA matters Cannon will arbitrate, she will also have wide latitude to determine the timeline of the case. Trump’s legal team has pressed the court to delay the trial indefinitely, in what could be a strategic bid to put it off until after the 2024 election. Smith’s team has pressed for a trial date before the end of 2023.
The CIPA-related matters expected to be discussed at Tuesday’s hearing could themselves have a bearing on how soon the case will go to trial. Experts have said that the mechanics of handling classified documents in court can delay the case in several ways, including the process by which defense counsel obtain security clearances and the cumbersome logistics of safely reviewing classified records.
“When discovery is provided to the defense in a regular case, those lawyers can review that material with all the efficiencies that have been gained in modern litigation,” Aaron said. “But when the Justice Department provides classified discovery materials, the defense has to go to a specific room and may be limited by how many cleared laptops they’ll have, or how much of this is in hard copy.”
Government prosecutors recently expressed frustration with one of Nauta’s attorneys, who they suspected of deliberately slow-walking his clearance paperwork to cause delays. That attorney ultimately met the court’s deadline to submit the paperwork, but the squabble could foretell future disputes over the pace of the case.
On Monday, Smith’s team entered a motion for a protective order over classified information the government plans to begin handing over in discovery, which is intended to prevent any unauthorized disclosures of evidence reviewed during the course of the case. Prosecutors wrote that Trump’s team had objected to some elements of the proposed order without specifying which parts.
The special counsel’s office also said Monday that it has handed over a second batch of unclassified discovery, which includes documents related to evidence obtained through subpoenas and search warrants, witness interviews. and other forms generated by the FBI.
(ATLANTA) — The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday denied former President Donald Trump’s request to quash the work of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the findings of a special grand jury she empaneled to review evidence in her probe of alleged misconduct in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
“This is not the sort of relief that this Court affords, at least absent extraordinary circumstances that Petitioner has not shown are present here,” the court wrote in a five-page order.
Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
Trump has publicly denounced the investigation and has denied all wrongdoing in his phone call to Raffensperger.
Attorneys for Trump last week asked the court to step in and remove Willis from the probe and invalidate the work of the special grand jury. They took issue with Willis’ authority to investigate the matter and cited Trump’s bid for the presidency in 2024 as part of their argument.
All the justices of the state’s Supreme Court agreed that Trump had not met a standard that would merit such an intervention, concluding that he failed to meet the “extremely rare circumstances” that would be necessary.
The special grand jury, which was disbanded in January, did not have the ability to return an indictment — only to make recommendations concerning criminal prosecutions. In the publicly released portion of the final report it submitted, the special grand jury revealed no details about any such recommendations, beyond recommending that prosecutors seek indictments against witnesses who they believed may have lied during their testimony.
Last week, Judge Robert McBurney swore in a new grand jury that could ultimately decide the fate of the investigation — including a vote on potential charges against the former president.
Willis has signaled publicly that potential charges could be brought as soon as this summer.
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Judge Joseph Seidlin on Monday temporarily blocked Iowa’s six-week abortion ban bill that would cease nearly all abortions in the state.
The legislation was signed on Friday by Gov. Kim Reynolds after state lawmakers held a special session Tuesday with the “sole purpose” of passing the legislation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(UPPER MAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — A search continued Monday afternoon for a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister after they and their mother were swept away in a flash flood in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday while driving with other family members to a barbecue, officials said.
The search for the children was centered around Hough’s Creek, just south of Upper Makefield Township, Chief Tim Brewer of the Upper Makefield Fire Company said at a news conference Monday.
“We ask everyone to keep the families in their thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time,” Brewer said. “We have deployed a massive amount of resources and teams. We have basically tripled the number of assets in the area.”
The missing children were identified as 2-year-old Matilda “Mattie” Sheils and 9-month-old Conrad Sheils, according to the Upper Makefield Police Department. The children’s 32-year-old mother, whose body was recovered on Sunday, was identified as Katie Seley, police said.
The missing children’s father and Saley’s fiancée, Jim Sheils, released a statement through police saying he and his family “would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support. They would also like to thank all of the personnel involved in this massive search effort to find Mattie and Conrad.”
The family is from Charlestown, South Carolina, and were visiting relatives in Bucks County when tragedy struck on Saturday, police said. The family was driving near Hough’s Creek, a 5-mile tributary leading to the Delaware River, when torrential rains struck at about 5:30 p.m., causing the creek to overflow and trapping the family in their car on Route 532, authorities said.
Jim Sheils and the children’s grandmother grabbed ahold of the missing siblings’ 4-year-old brother and escaped their car as it and other vehicles were being washed away, according to officials. Seley grabbed her two younger children and exited the car, but they were washed away in the powerful flash flood, officials said.
The father, grandmother and 4-year-old were found alive, officials said.
Brewer said Monday afternoon that he wanted to make it clear the family did not get trapped in their car by driving into high water.
“They were caught in a flash flood,” Brewer said. “The wall of water came to them, not the other way around.”
Besides Katie Seley, four other people were confirmed dead in the flooding. They were identified by the Bucks County Coroner’s Office as Enzo Dipero, 78, and Linda Dipero, 74, both of Newtown Township, Pennsylvania; Susan Barnhardt, 53, of Titusville, New Jersey; and Uko Love, 64, of Newtown Township.
The coroner’s office said all of the victims died from drowning.
Brewer said 11 vehicles, including the South Carolina family’s car, were found stuck in the rising flood waters near the Washington Crossing area, where George Washington made his famous crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 during the Revolutionary War.
Brewer said search-and-rescue crews witnessed at least three vehicles being swept into the creek, including one that was found 1.5 miles away from where it went into the creek.
At least 75 search-and-rescue crew members were combing the area for the missing children, Brewer said. He said the number of search-and-rescue personnel is expected to grow to over 100 on Monday as more equipment is being brought in to aid in the search.
He said K-9 units, divers and aircraft are being deployed in the search, as well as drones.
“We’re in the area of the creek and widening the search,” Brewer said Monday. “This is going to be a massive undertaking. We are searching the entire creek.”
Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency for parts of sections of Warren County near the Delaware River that were also devastated over the weekend by flooding. On Monday, Murphy toured the hard-hit town of Belvidere and said it was a “small miracle” there were no injuries.
Officials said the heavy rain on Sunday toppled trees, caused landslides and washed away roads in Warren County, including Route 46 in Knowlton Township.
“We’re going to stay here as long as it takes,” Murphy said of the cleanup underway. “Incredibly important for people watching this to document every penny you spend.”
At least $50 million in storm damage over the past week occurred in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island, where 5 inches of rain fell in two hours on Saturday, overwhelming storm drains and damaging roads.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
