(WASHINGTON D.C)–All Senate buildings at the Capitol have been searched and deemed clear following a report of a “possible active shooter,” authorities said.
“There is no active threat,” police tweeted.
“We found nothing concerning,” police said at a news conference.
“This may have been a bogus call,” police said, adding that there were no confirmed gunshots.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon the Capitol Police urged everyone inside the Senate buildings to shelter in place as officers searched “in response to a concerning 911 call.”
The original call warned that there was an active shooter in body armor at the Hart Senate Office Building, police said.
Scary. Major police response at the US Capitol Russell Building, police yelling at people to run away. pic.twitter.com/h6PY0Zj9Cw
According to law enforcement officials, police are trying to trace the source of the call. Police said at the press conference that when they tried calling back the number, it bounced back to different locations every time.
Someone suffering from “emotional distress” was seen being taken out on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, sources said.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives are currently out of session on a summer recess.
People being led out of Russell Senate Office Building amid reports of possible active shooter pic.twitter.com/VC4Kpe2Kux
(TENNESSEE)– Germantown, Tennessee, has placed a city employee on administrative leave after a diesel spill contaminated the town’s water supply and left some residents without access to clean tap water for over a week.
The city determined the diesel spill “was in part due to human error by a tenured employee,” the city confirmed to ABC News.
The employee will remain on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation, according to the city.
Residents in Germantown, a suburb of Memphis, were told not to use tap water after people reported a strong odor to their tap water on July 20. An investigation into the the cause revealed that diesel fuel was leaking into an underground reservoir from a generator that was powering a water treatment facility due to a power outage.
Residents were told to only use tap water to flush their toilets.
About 100 gallons of diesel contaminated about 4.2 million gallons of water that were being held on site, according to the city.
City officials gradually lifted the restriction on using tap water for residents. Results from a sample collected on Sunday came back all clear, officials said.
“The City continues to execute additional main line flushing to target areas still experiencing residual odor. As required by [the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation], the City also continues to sample the water in the main lines at these targeted locations for diesel and its sub-compounds. The City will continue flushing the area until tests are clear,” the city said in an announcement Tuesday.
While flushing residential water lines, residents are advised to ensure there is proper ventilation in place in case of strong odors.
Aside from the leak, additional contamination was found deeper in the soil immediately surrounding a pipe that was carrying clean water from the treatment plant into the underground reservoir, Public Works Director Bo Mills said in a recorded message to city residents last week.
“There was a breach in this pipe at this location which allowed the diesel fuel in the soil to enter the reservoir. The pipe has been repaired and the contaminated soil is being removed and contained on site and will be properly disposed of as required by regulations,” Mills said.
“Good, clean soil has been acquired to backfill and compact the area in the full repair. The generator has been fully inspected multiple times by outside contractors to ensure that there are no issues with the generator,” Mills said.
(NEW YORK)– NYPD detectives are looking for a 17-year-old in connection with Saturday night’s fatal stabbing of dancer O’Shae Sibley at a gas station in Brooklyn.
The 17-year-old has a history of arrests but, because he’s a minor, the records are sealed and the details are unavailable, police said.
According to police, the 28-year-old Sibley was stabbed in his torso on Saturday around 11 p.m. In a video posted to Facebook, Sibley’s friend Otis Pena said he and Sibley were among a group of friends that were voguing and dancing at the gas station while pumping gas when they were confronted by another group.
According to Pena, the group hurled homophobic slurs at Sibley’s group. The confrontation then turned violent and Sibley was stabbed, witnesses said.
Sibley was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. Police say they are trying to move quickly to establish what happened and whether this was a bias crime.
Sibley, a Black gay man, was a beloved figure in the New York and Philadelphia dance communities. He was a student of the Ailey Extension, the official dance studio of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation, and formerly a part of Philadanco, the Philadelphia Dance Company.
Ja’Michael De’Shawn, a fellow dancer who worked with Sibley, called him a “joy to be in a studio with” and said he had “a beautiful and sweet spirit.”
“He was just spectacular to see move on stage,” De’Shawn told ABC News. “He has so much passion, so much technique. And he always made us everyone in the room feel confident, like we could do it.”
De’Shawn recalled that on his 31st birthday, Sibley broke out singing “Happy Birthday” in the dressing room before a performance.
“How is it even possible for someone’s life to be taken at such a young age, so talented, so kind,” he said.
Sibley was reportedly dancing to Beyoncé’s album “Renaissance,” which pays homage to the Black queer community.
The pop star honored him on her website, in a tribute that reads: “Rest in Power O’Shae Sibley.”
The killing comes at a time of growing anti-LGBTQ+ extremism across the U.S., that has led to protests, threats and violence against the queer community.
Philadanco and Ailey Extension paid tribute to the dancer on social media.
“This news is absolutely heartbreaking and we believe no one deserves to be targeted for simply being themselves and living in their truth,” read a statement from Philadanco.
“O’Shae was a cherished and devoted Ailey Extension student. He had incredible energy in the studio and was loved by instructors and fellow classmates,” said the Ailey Extension, the official dance studio of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation, in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — As a teenager in the mid-1980s, Christina Boyer became a media sensation after she and her family claimed she possessed the ability to move objects with her mind. She returned to the headlines in 1992 when she was charged with the murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Amber.
Facing the death penalty, Boyer took an Alford plea, pleading guilty while maintaining her innocence, and was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison with the possibility of parole.
But at the heart of the case remains a perplexing question: How could Boyer be guilty of murder when, according to evidence, she wasn’t home at the time of Amber’s death or in the hours leading up to it?
“Demons and Saviors,” a new three-part series from ABC News Studios and Latchkey Films, explores Boyer’s childhood and efforts to exonerate her by a group of steadfast supporters who are convinced she’s innocent and calling on officials to revisit the case. Meanwhile, authorities involved in investigating and prosecuting the case argue that Boyer is a master manipulator who is right where she belongs.
Boyer, speaking via phone from Georgia’s Pulaski State Prison, says she was 14 years old when seemingly unexplainable events started happening at her home in Columbus, Ohio, such as: an alarm clock going haywire, the TV playing after it was unplugged, lights turning on and off and objects flying across the room.
Then known as Tina Resch, her parents, John and Joan Resch, were religious and believed these incidents were caused by some sort of demonic spirit that had possessed their daughter, so they called in a priest to perform an exorcism.
“They had their hands on my head and they were doing all kinds of praying. And while they were doing that, things in the kitchen were going haywire and basically that they just felt like whatever they were doing, it was not enough,” Boyer said.
Joan Resch then called the local paper, The Columbus Dispatch, who sent photojournalist Fred Shannon to try and document the mysterious phenomena. Shannon shot a now-infamous photo purporting to show Boyer sitting in an armchair with a telephone on the end of a phone cord flying across her lap.
The news coverage brought Boyer newfound notoriety, attracting both paranormal investigators fascinated by the case and skeptics determined to debunk the phenomenon.
“Everybody wanted to see what was going on. It was like ‘Showtime at the Apollo,’” Boyer said, referring to the hit variety television show.
Meanwhile, Boyer alleges she was being abused at home. After a shocking “caught on camera” moment put her powers into question, Boyer ran away from home and soon entered into what she referred to as an abusive marriage. A few years later, she started a new life in the small, Bible Belt town of Carrollton, Georgia, with her daughter Amber.
She chose Carrollton because residing there were Bill Roll and Jeannie Lagle, two psychologists who had previously studied her purported abilities. Lagle and Boyer began writing a book together about Boyer’s experiences. Boyer started dating David Herrin, a local man who Boyer says was “straight-laced and mild-mannered” compared to her other relationships. By all accounts, things seemed to be looking up for Boyer – until April 14, 1992, when Boyer says she came home from Lagle’s house and found Amber, 3, unresponsive.
Boyer had left Amber in Herrin’s care for several hours – a claim corroborated by Lagle, Boyer’s alibi witness, and Herrin himself.
The medical examiner characterized Amber’s injuries as a clear case of child abuse that occurred over the course of several days and found the girl most likely died of a fatal blow to the head during a time period that Boyer, according to her alibi, wasn’t home.
“When you looked at her with all the bruising, it was kind of obvious the child’s been severely, physically abused,” retired Carrollton police detective Mike Bradley said.
Boyer and Herrin were both arrested for the murder of Amber, and each of them blamed the other for the girl’s injuries. Amber did have previous injuries, according to the medical examiner – some of them older and others fresher from several days before.
Herrin claimed that on April 10, Amber got a knot on her forehead after tripping on a sidewalk curb. The next day, Herrin also reported that Amber fell down the front porch steps and she landed face first in the gravel.
“He told me that he had gone to sleep in the lazy boy chair in the living room. He obviously didn’t think about locking the screen door. And she got out and fell down the stairs,” Boyer said.
“I did see a goose egg, what we call a goose egg knot, on her forehead. So I was concerned, of course. And I know that the only thing you can do is to just observe them and I saw Amber coloring. I thought that was a very good sign she wasn’t showing any effects. I consider that Amber was on my watch and I have gone over and over and over what happened,” Lagle said.
On the morning of April 14, Boyer said she planned to leave around noon to go to Lagle’s to “work on some typing.”
“When I asked [Amber] about going with me, she had grabbed a book and climbed up in [Herrin’s] lap,” Boyer said.
Former District Attorney Peter Skandalakis says in “Demons and Saviors” that, if the case had gone to trial, there were witnesses who would have testified they had previously seen Boyer be physically abusive toward her daughter.
Boyer’s case also attracted local media attention in the deeply religious town and news accounts revealed details about her past.
“On the front page of the newspaper, it says not only child murderer, but psychic child murderer. After those newspaper headlines came out, I don’t believe there was anybody left in town that didn’t believe she did it, because she was the witch, she was the paranormal,” Lagle said.
Rather than face trial and the possibility of a death sentence, Boyer agreed to a plea bargain negotiated by her attorney and the prosecutors. At Herrin’s trial, he was acquitted of murder and convicted of cruelty to children. He served 12 years of his 20-year sentence and was released on parole in 2011.
Now, after decades behind bars, Boyer has found hope in an eclectic group of amateur sleuths who refer to themselves as “Team Tina.” Leading these efforts are three former Georgetown University students who began taking a closer look at Boyer’s case as part of a course called “Making an Exoneree” in the spring of 2019. “Team Tina” has pored over case files to try and uncover new details that could prove her innocence. Boyer’s supporters focus on the fatal blow rather than the alleged pattern of abuse, saying Boyer can’t be guilty of murder when she wasn’t there when the fatal blow occurred.
“I’m more hopeful now actually, because there’s so many more people all around that are involved. I sat here for years with very few people really knowing what had happened and caring. So I have more hope now that if there’s anything that can be done, somebody will find it,” Boyer said.
“Team Tina” faces firm opposition from the people who put her away, including Bradley, and fellow retired Carrollton police detective Mike Thomas.
“They’re listening to her side, and that’s the only side they know,” Thomas said.
“If we could put this whole case file back together and set them down, I guarantee you I could change their mind,” Bradley said.
Skandalakis, the lead prosecutor on the case, says he’s often asked about the disparity of the two verdicts involving Herrin and Boyer in the case.
“[People say,] ‘Here you have Christina Boyer who is obviously held to a higher standard because she’s the mother, serving life in prison. David Herrin gets convicted of cruelty and does 20 years in prison, and how’s that fair?’ My answer to that is, I don’t know. After the jury acquitted him [of murder] I remember the jury filing through the courtroom and I asked, ‘How did y’all find him not guilty of felony murder but you found him guilty of cruelty to children?’ And she looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘It wasn’t his child,'” Skandalakis said.
“Demons and Saviors” begins streaming Aug. 3 on Hulu.
(NEW YORK) — A body recovered from a New York City creek has been identified as a 27-year-old Goldman Sachs analyst, according to police.
The remains of John Castic were discovered on Monday in Newtown Creek in the city’s Brooklyn borough, according to the New York City Police Department.
The grim discovery was made around 11 a.m. Monday after a 911 caller spotted the body floating in Newtown Creek in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
An NYPD Harbor Unit was called to the scene and recovered the body from the water. Castic was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The New York City chief medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death, police said.
🚨MISSING PERSON ALERT 🚨
John was last seen in the East Williamsburg / Bushwick area leaving Brooklyn Mirage late Friday, early Saturday morning.
“We are all shocked and saddened to learn of John’s tragic passing,” Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman David Solomon said in a statement. “John was a dedicated, driven member of our Controllers team working closely with our Asset and Wealth Management business. Our thoughts are with his mother Dawn, his father Jeff, and his entire family at this very difficult time. John will be deeply missed by his Goldman Sachs family.”
Castic went missing early Saturday after leaving a concert at the Brooklyn Mirage nightclub, several blocks from Newtown Creek, New York City Councilmember Jen Gutierrez posted on Twitter.
Prior to Castic’s body being found, friends of the financial analyst formed a search party, combing the area around the nightclub and passing out missing-person flyers with photos of Castic.
(NEW YORK) — A federal jury has sentenced Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers to death.
All 12 jurors had to agree to impose the death penalty. Otherwise, Bowers would have been sentenced to life in prison.
Wednesday’s verdict came on the second day of deliberations.
The family of 97-year-old victim Rose Mallinger said in a statement, “Although we will never attain closure from the loss of our beloved Rose Mallinger, we now feel a measure of justice has been served.”
“Returning a sentence of death is not a decision that comes easy, but we must hold accountable those who wish to commit such terrible acts of antisemitism, hate, and violence,” the family said. “May we always remember those who were taken too soon — Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Daniel Stein, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Irving Younger, Melvin Wax, and Rose Mallinger. May their memories be for a blessing.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the massacre, said in a statement, “In the years we have spent waiting for this trial to take place, many of us have been stuck in neutral. It was a challenge to move forward with the looming specter of a murder trial.”
“Now that the trial is nearly over and the jury has recommended a death sentence, it is my hope that we can begin to heal and move forward,” Myers said. “I have my faith, bolstered by the embrace and respect with which my community has been treated by our government and our fellow citizens. For this and the seriousness with which the jury took its duty, I remain forever grateful.”
Bowers shot and killed 11 worshippers, including a 97-year-old woman, at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history.
Bowers had offered to plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the table, but prosecutors turned him down.
He was convicted in June on all 63 charges against him, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death.
On July 13, the jury decided Bowers and the crime met the criteria to be eligible for the death penalty.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(HAWAII) — Four large dogs have attacked and killed a man in his 70’s in an early morning “unprovoked” attack in the middle of the road that police are calling “horrific.”
The incident occurred at approximately 8:59 a.m. on Tuesday morning when Ka‘ū patrol officers on Hawaii’s Big Island received a call and responded to an animal complaint in the 92-2000 block of Outrigger Drive in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision, according to a statement released by the Hawaii Police Department.
While authorities are unsure how the attack began, officials were able to locate a witness who reported “hearing a commotion outside his residence,” police said. When the witness went to check on the noises he was hearing outside his home, he said he “saw the victim being attacked in the roadway by four large dogs” before he was able to chase the dogs away and call police and paramedics to the scene.
When officers arrived, they discovered a man — estimated to be in his 70’s — lying unconscious in the middle of the road.
“The victim, believed to be a male in his 70s, was treated by emergency medical personnel at the scene and while being transported to the Kona Community Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries,” Hawaii Police Department said. “He was transported to the Ka‘ū Hospital for the official pronouncement of death.”
The dogs’ owners were not home at the time of the attack, police said, but they have since been identified and contacted by police and investigators are now looking into claims that the dogs had previously been reported as stray animals.
“In the meantime, the owners have surrendered all four dogs and a litter of 10 puppies to the Hawai’i County Animal Control and Protection Agency,” Hawaii Police Department officials said.
“There is currently no evidence that the victim provoked this horrific attack,” Hawai’i Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz said in a statement following the attack. “This incident is a senseless tragedy that could have been avoided.”
Police are investigating this incident as a Negligent Failure to Control a Dangerous Dog case and Hawaii law, which was most recently revised just last year, makes it a felony crime if someone fails to take reasonable measures to prevent an unprovoked dog attack resulting in serious bodily injury or death.
Investigators have classified the case as a Class B Felony, which means that, if the dog owners are convicted, they could face up to a $25,000 fine, ten years in prison, restitution and/or the humane destruction of the dogs involved, police said.
The victim’s identity is being withheld until positive identification is made and the next of kin is contacted and an autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death, Hawaii Police Department said in their statement to the public.
Meanwhile, officials are asking anyone with information regarding this incident please contact Area II Criminal Investigation Section Detective Donovan Kohara at (808) 960-3118.
(MARYLAND) — A woman died and nine others were injured after a vehicle travelling the wrong way on Maryland’s Capital Beltway caused a multi-vehicle accident late Tuesday, Maryland State Police said.
The preliminary investigation by MSP revealed that a white Mercedes SUV travelled southbound in the northbound lanes of I-270, toward the outer loop of I-495, when it crashed into a Lexus and a Nissan Pathfinder in Montgomery County, police said.
“Five adults in the Lexus were injured and transported by ambulance to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries,” the release said. “Two adults and three children were injured in the Nissan. The driver of the Nissan, a female, was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, where she was declared deceased.”
The deceased woman’s identity was being withheld until next of kin were notified.
Jayleen Hannor, 23, of Macon, Georgia, whom police identified as the alleged wrong-way driver, was arrested with charges pending, police said. Hannor fled the scene after the crash but shortly after was taken into custody and transported to the Rockville Barrack, police said.
The cause of the crash remained under investigation, which is being led by the Maryland State Police Crash Team.
(ARIZONA) — One person is dead and more than 50 people have been injured after a bus rolled over at the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, authorities say.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:50 a.m. when Hualapai Emergency Services were notified of a bus rollover at Grand Canyon West, leaving 57 injured and killing one.
“Hualapai Emergency Services, GCW Air Rescue Fire, Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire Dept., Northern Arizona Consolidated Fire Dept., AMR ambulances, Bullhead Fire Dept., and 5 medical flight agencies responded to the incident,” according to a statement issued by Hualapai Emergency Services in the aftermath of the accident.
Out of the 57 people injured in the rollover, eight people were flown to surrounding hospitals and treated for serious injuries while the rest of the victims who sustained noncritical injuries were all taken for treatment by ground transportation.
One person was killed in the incident, but police have not said how that person died or released any information on the victim while authorities investigate the accident.
“The Hualapai Nation Police Dept. and Arizona DPS are handling the fatality investigation,” authorities said.
Grand Canyon West is run by the Hualapai tribe in Arizona, which has no operational ties to Grand Canyon National Park and is managed by the National Park Service, according to Grand Canyon West’s website.
The incident is ongoing and no further information is being made available by authorities at this time.
(KANSAS CITY) –Months after a grand jury indicted a Missouri man accused of holding a Black woman captive in his basement on nine charges, a potential witness that police had been trying to find for months in the case has been found dead.
Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announced in a press release Monday that remains found June 24 were positively identified as Jaynie Crosdale, a potential witness in the case against Timothy Haslett Jr.
According to ABC local affiliate KMBC, it’s unknown how Crosdale, 36, died and an autopsy is pending. The Missouri Highway Patrol says Crosdale’s body was found in the Missouri River, according to KMBC.
At a February press conference, Thompson said that authorities were still searching for a potential witness whose whereabouts were unknown at that time.
“Our office is working closely with law enforcement to gather all evidence and information that is needed to build the strongest case possible and deliver justice for Jaynie Crosdale,” the Monday release stated. “The family of Crosdale has been notified, and our hearts go out to them for their loss.”
According to Thompson, Crosdale may have had information relevant to the Haslett case.
Haslett, who is white, was arrested in October 2022, after a 22-year-old Black woman said she was being held captive for a month in his Excelsior Springs home, where she was beaten and raped, according to the police.
Authorities have not released the victim’s name.
According to the affidavit filed in the case, the victim fled to a neighbor’s home wearing lingerie, a metal collar with a padlock and duct tape around her neck.
In February, a grand jury indicted Haslett on nine charges, including rape in the first degree, four counts of sodomy in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree and two counts of assault in the first degree to which he has entered a not guilty plea. A search of his home revealed a small room in the basement that was consistent with what the victim described, the affidavit stated.
Haslett faces up to 36 years in prison if convicted of all charges, according to Thompson.
“This is a dynamic and ongoing investigation, with new information continuing to be gathered at a rapid pace,” the press release said. “We will continue to pursue evidence quickly and aggressively in this matter.”
Haslett has been in custody since October 7, 2022, and is currently being held on a $3 million bond. The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office said they filed a motion Monday to increase his bond in this case with a request for the motion to be heard at the “earliest opportunity.”
The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to ABC News request for comment.
Early into the Haslett case, Missouri community members, including Kansas City community leader Bishop Tony Caldwell, claimed other Black women have been abducted and murdered without any police follow-up before this incident.
A Kansas City Police Department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News last October that there have been no reports of missing persons, more specifically women missing from Prospect Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, filed to the department.
“In order to begin a missing person’s investigation, someone would need to file a report with our department identifying the missing party,” the statement read. “Again, we notify the media/public anytime our department responds to a homicide in our city and none match, or have been reported to what has been described.”
