(TAHOE CITY, Calif.) — A man found with an arsenal of weapons was arrested after a person near a local California movie theater spotted him with a gun and called 911, authorities said.
Police arrested 42-year-old Thomas Alexander of Oregon after conducting a traffic stop near the Cobblestone Movie Theater on May 19. Authorities discovered multiple weapons in his vehicle, including a loaded handgun holstered on his hip, a loaded rifle with four high-capacity magazines, two additional loaded handguns and prescription pills, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.
Alexander is facing multiple charges, including carrying a loaded firearm in public, illegal possession of a rifle, transporting a rifle and possession of a controlled substance, according to the sheriff’s office.
Law enforcement officials responded to an emergency call from a concerned citizen at the Tahoe City-area movie theater inquiring about California’s gun law on open carry, after the citizen allegedly saw Alexander with a weapon, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
Prior to his arrest, Alexander allegedly inquired about the arrival time of theatergoers, according to police.
According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, California is home to the strictest gun laws in the U.S.– some of which were enacted in response to several violent mass shootings in recent years, including a bill from February that expanded the state’s gun licensing system and strengthened gun training requirements.
Despite its tough laws on firearms, California has been the site of a handful of mass shootings so far this year.
Eleven people were killed and nine injured at a dance studio in Monterey Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, on Jan. 21 during a Lunar New Year celebration.
On Jan. 23, seven people were fatally shot in Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, after a suspect open fired on two farms in the rural town, according to officials.
California voters passed Proposition 63 in 2016, which requires background checks for purchasing ammunition and prohibits possession of large-capacity magazines. A red flag law also went into effect that year, which prevents certain people from acquiring firearms.
Alexander’s attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
His next hearing is on June 7, according to court records.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(BOSTON) — Police have arrested 35-year-old Matthew J. Nilo, a former Boston attorney, in connection with several decades-old rapes that took place in Boston. Officials said they were able to identify the suspect using forensic genetic genealogy.
Nilo has been charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of indecent assault and battery, according to Boston police.
The sexual assaults were allegedly committed on Aug. 18, 2007; Nov. 22, 2007; Aug. 5, 2008; and Dec. 23, 2008, in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, according to police.
“This arrest cumulates the investigation that employed the use of genetic genealogy from recovered evidence. All four cases are DNA connected,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said at a press conference.
Nilo was arrested in New Jersey following an investigation between the Boston Police Department, the New Jersey Police Department and Boston’s FBI office.
“These investigations utilized sexual assault evidence collection kits with the assistance of detectives in identifying the suspect as the investigations continued,” Cox said.
Additional resources for the investigation came from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Grant, which helps the city investigate unsolved sexual assault crimes, according to Cox.
Efforts were launched in May 2022 to review unsolved sexual assault cases that posed the most threat to public safety, Cox said.
Authorities announced in 2008 that the cases were connected through DNA evidence, but had no suspect at the time. Through genetic genealogy, detectives can search for relatives of an unknown suspect through DNA voluntarily submitted to public databases and then narrow the family members down to a likely perpetrator.
“While we know today’s arrest of Mr. Nilo cannot erase the harm he allegedly inflicted upon his survivors, we believe we have removed a dangerous threat from our community,” FBI Boston Division Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta said at the press conference.
(WASHINGTON) — A Hispanic man accused of shooting and killing eight people at an outlet mall in Texas earlier this month held a mix of views consistent with neo-Nazism and involuntary celibate extremist ideologies, authorities said.
Though a motive for the suspect, who was shot and killed by a police officer, remains under investigation, the mass shooting appears among recent examples that highlight a “persistent and lethal threat” to U.S. security posed by “lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a recent bulletin.
This type of threat is what’s often referred to by FBI director Christopher Wray as “salad bar” extremism. In the U.K., it’s known by the acronym MUU — mixed, unstable or unclear. Security firm Valens Global calls the phenomenon “composite violent extremism.”
The terms broadly refer to “idiosyncratic patterns of radicalization,” according to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the CEO of Valens Global who leads a project on domestic extremism for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
“Traditionally, terrorism is thought of as being largely nested within a single ideology,” Gartenstein-Ross told ABC News. “What we’re seeing is violent extremists who display an amalgamation of different disparate beliefs, interests and grievances.”
This pattern of radicalization has “taken on increasing salience in recent years,” with an uptick within the last decade, Gartenstein-Ross said.
Examples of this, he cited, include Frank James, who pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges for a 2022 shooting in the New York City subway; Nikolas Cruz, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 mass shooting at South Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; and Zale Thompson, who was shot and killed by NYC police officers after attacking them with an ax in 2014.
John Cohen, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security acting undersecretary for intelligence and ABC News contributor, points to several factors that are contributing to this phenomenon in the U.S., including a highly-polarized society in which some people feel that violence is acceptable, and an online and media environment that is “saturated” with extremist content.
“You spend time online, you not only can find the justification for the conduct of that attack, but you can find content that will provide you detailed instructions on how to do it,” Cohen said.
Gartenstein-Ross said he feels that the idiosyncratic ideologies reflect people, in general, taking on very disparate ideas in today’s information and social media environment.
“We as a people are becoming more incoherent,” he said. “Extremists are becoming more incoherent as well.”
Such extremists may pop up on law enforcement’s radar prior to attacks — such as a concerned call from a family member — but the U.S. lacks a “cohesive strategy” in the investigation and prevention of this threat, according to Cohen.
“This is the most complex, dynamic and dangerous threat environment I’ve experienced — and I include in that the months following Sept. 11,” Cohen said. “The reason I say that is because we’re not adapting to address this [type of] threat, and it’s a threat that potentially impacts every city and town across the United States.”
Composite violent extremism poses several challenges to law enforcement, Gartenstein-Ross noted, from determining when someone who is ideologically idiosyncratic becomes a threat to how to best intervene, to how to define their community.
“We understand where jihadist groups exist, we can see very concretely what the neo-Nazi white supremacist sphere is,” Gartenstein-Ross said. “For idiosyncratic, violent extremism, what’s the digital or real-world community that forms a part of the extremist’s familia?”
There is also an “unsettled” methodology in determining this type of extremist’s core beliefs, Gartenstein-Ross said.
“I firmly believe these are things we can crack,” he continued. “A lot of these are new questions based on the increased prominence of idiosyncratic radicalization patterns.”
Cohen said addressing the threat will entail strategies from the local to federal level.
“We have to employ not just traditional law enforcement strategies to address it, but also community-based threat management strategies that involve collaborative efforts involving mental health professionals, law enforcement, community groups, faith leaders,” he said.
Educating both the public on the behaviors of these types of extremists so they know when to alert authorities, and front-line responders on how to respond, is also key, he said.
Common behaviors often exhibited by violent extremists, who tend to be people “who exist on the fringe of the community,” include publicly expressing anger and grievances; spending significant time online consuming violent and extremist content; acquiring firearms, ammunition and tactical gear; posting photos with that gear; and “making statements that represent an articulation of an intent to engage in violence,” Cohen said.
“We need to make sure that those calls are answered and that local authorities have a process in place to evaluate those behaviors — not just from the perspective of, has a crime been committed, but from the perspective of, is this person exhibiting behaviors that we know to be associated with somebody who may be preparing to conduct a mass casualty attack?” Cohen said.
(NEW YORK) — Wildfires burning in Canada continue to create hazardous air quality conditions in several states in the northern U.S.
Plumes of smoke from the fires blazing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, began drifting over New York City and the tri-state area on Tuesday, leading to a decrease in air quality, according to the National Weather Service.
Patchy low-level smoke is expected to linger and expand through the region on Wednesday, creating a cloudy haze that will block much of the sunlight, the NWS announced. The smell of smoke will also be present in some areas.
The jet stream, a high-speed, constantly shifting river of air about 30,000 feet into the atmosphere, is carrying the smoke from Nova Scotia through New England and further south in the U.S.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has issued a “code orange” air quality alert through Wednesday night for several counties, signifying unhealthy air pollution concentrations.
At-risk populations, such as young children, the elderly or those with lung and heart disease, should avoid the outdoors through Wednesday, according to the advisory.
The smoke is also affecting northern states such as Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut and is expected to travel as far south as Washington, D.C.
The weather is expected to remain hot and dry on Wednesday, with no rain forecast until Friday at the earliest.
Travel and activity in wooded areas have been banned to prevent the chances of reburn in some of the evacuated neighborhoods due to heavy winds.
Air quality alerts are in effect in the Northeast until midnight Thursday.
Branden Colvin, one of the residents still missing after a building collapsed in Davenport, Iowa, is shown in this undated photo. — Obtained by ABC News
(DAVENPORT, Iowa) — It’s been nearly 72 hours since a Davenport, Iowa, apartment building partially collapsed, possibly trapping two men inside, including resident Branden Colvin.
Colvin’s son, Branden Colvin Jr., said he feels helpless as he waits for answers.
“I know my dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do … wishing I could just run in there,” Colvin Jr. told ABC News on Wednesday.
Colvin Jr. said he’s not an emotional person, but when he was alone, he said he broke down crying.
“I just want to talk to him, give him a hug, hear his voice, anything,” he said.
The six-story building partially collapsed on Sunday afternoon for unknown reasons.
More than a dozen people evacuated the building at the time and eight people were rescued in the 24 hours that followed.
On Monday, officials said there was no credible information that anyone was missing and the city was moving forward with plans for staging a demolition beginning Tuesday.
Then, on Monday night, a ninth victim, Lisa Brooks, was found alive inside and pulled out of a fourth-story window.
On Tuesday, demolition plans were put on hold as officials announced that five people were unaccounted for, including two men, Branden Colvin and Ryan Hitchcock, who may be inside.
Colvin Jr. said Brooks’ rescue “gave me hope.”
“I’m just trying to stick it out and keep having hope,” he said.
But Colvin Jr. is frustrated with city officials, saying he wants responders to “just go in there and look for these people.”
Officials said Tuesday they were working to determine the best ways to search as the building’s condition worsens.
In a Tuesday afternoon search, several animals were rescued, but no human activity was detected, city officials said.
“The stability of the building continues to degrade,” the city of Davenport said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “The recovery of any unaccounted for individuals remains the priority of the City as operational planning progresses.”
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(INDIANOLA, Miss.) — The family of Aderrien Murry, the 11-year-old boy who was shot by police on May 20 after calling 911, claimed the boy was shot without warning after he and his family members were ordered to leave their house, according to a lawsuit.
The suit, filed in Mississippi federal court on behalf of Aderrien and his mother, Nakala Murry, claims the officer who fired the gun, Greg Capers, was “reckless.” It was filed after Aderrien spoke to ABC News about the incident.
“This is a claim for negligence and excessive force,” said the complaint, which also named the city of Indianola, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and John Does.
“The injuries endured by all plaintiffs could have been avoided if defendants would have acquired the adequate training on how to provide proper assistance and care,” the lawsuit, which was reviewed by ABC News, said. “However, as a result of the defendants, deliberate indifference, reckless disregard and gross negligence, plaintiffs sustained injuries and damages.”
The complaint alleges that Capers arrived at the home with his firearm drawn and that he fired at Aderrien without warning as the boy emerged from the room.
Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone and the Indianola Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News has also attempted to reach the officers directly.
Before his family announced the suit, Aderrien spoke out about the harrowing experience in an exclusive interview that aired on Good Morning America and GMA3 on Tuesday.
“I came out of the room like this,” Aderrien said with his hands above his head as he reflected on the incident in an interview with GMA3 co-anchor DeMarco Morgan.
“It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest,” he added.
Aderrien said that he ran to his mother, who was standing outside, after he got shot.
“I was bleeding — bleeding from my mouth. Then I would just remember singing a song,” he said.
Asked what song he was singing, Aderrien said, “No weapon formed against me — prosper shall.”
The line is a reference to a Bible verse, Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”
Murry previously told GMA3 in an interview that aired on Thursday that her son was shot in the chest by a police officer who responded to their home in Indianola, Mississippi in the early morning hours of May 20 after her son called 911. Murry is now calling for the officer to be fired.
Murry told ABC News she gave Aderrien the phone and asked him to call his grandmother after she said she woke up around 4 a.m., heard a knock on the window and saw her ex-boyfriend standing outside.
“I noticed he was kind of irate. And from dealing with him in the past, I know the irate version of him, what it could lead to,” she told GMA3.
ABC News has reached out to the ex-boyfriend but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
According to Murry, Aderrien first called the police and then he called his grandmother, who also called 911.
She explained that two officers responded to their home in Indianola, and her daughter’s father asked her not to open the door as police tried to break in.
“I heard a shot and I saw my son run out toward where we were,” she said recalling the shooting.
“[Aderrien] fell, bleeding,” Murry added.
Featherstone told ABC News that officer Capers fired the shot that hit Aderrien. Capers was later suspended, Featherstone said.
The Indianola Police Department declined to comment.
Aderrien was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered a bullet had collapsed his lung and cut his liver, according to the family.
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the incident, officers responded to a domestic disturbance at the home and a minor was significantly hurt from an “officer-involved shooting.”
The results of the investigation will be shared with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the agency said.
Asked about the status of the investigation, the Mississippi District Attorney’s Office referred all inquiries to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
“The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is tasked with reviewing and prosecuting all office- involved shootings. That being the case, we do not have any comment nor involvement in this investigation nor prosecution,” the DA’s office told ABC News.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Murry family attorney Carlos Moore told ABC News this incident is an example of excessive force.
“With living in the South, Mississippi, especially, sometimes you feel that you can trust the police a little more when they [are] your own color, your own race,” Moore said, referring to the fact that Capers is Black. “But now this man, this young boy, would never trust law enforcement again.”
Aderrien said he now wants to be a doctor. When asked if it was because of his life-saving care, Aderrien replied, “Well, not only them. As I said, it was God that saved my life and I truly truly believe that.”
Although she’s calling for the officer who shot her son to be fired, Murry said she does not “hate him.”
“You know, I’m not angry,” she told ABC News. “I’m so much over filled with joy at the fact that my son is alive that I don’t — I don’t have room for anger right now. I want justice to be served.”
ABC News’ Katie O’Brien, Kimberly Ruiz and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(HOLLYWOOD, Fla.) — Police are searching for suspects after nine people, including children, were shot and injured along the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk on Florida’s east coast.
Four children between the ages of 1 and 17 were shot Monday night, including a baby between 15 and 18 months old, according to Hollywood police spokesperson Deanna Bettineschi.
The other five victims were adults ages 25 to 65.
The four children remain hospitalized on Wednesday, all in stable condition, according to hospital officials. The injured adults have been treated and released.
The shooting apparently stemmed from an altercation between two groups, and multiple people were detained in the aftermath, Bettineschi said Tuesday.
Two men believed to be involved in the shooting have been arrested on weapons charges, Bettineschi said. Morgan Deslouches, 18, and Keshawn Paul Stewart, 18, both face a concealed carry weapon charge in connection with the incident. Deslouches also has been charged with larceny-grand theft of a firearm and removing the serial number from a firearm, court records show.
Authorities said they’re looking to identify these three people they believe were also involved in the shooting:
“No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrators to justice,” Hollywood Beach Mayor Josh Levy said in a statement Tuesday. “We will utilize every available resource to apprehend those responsible.”
“It is completely unacceptable that innocent people spending time with family on a holiday weekend have been affected by a shooting altercation between two groups who came into our city with guns and no regard for the safety of the law abiding public around them,” Levy added.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds, Peter Charalambous and Okelo Pena contributed to this report.
