Ship strikes major Baltimore bridge causing partial collapse

Andrew Doyle

(BALTIMORE) — A ship struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, causing a partial collapse and sending vehicles and people into the water, officials in Maryland said. 

“I can confirm at 1:35 a.m., Baltimore City police were notified of a partial bridge collapse, with workers possibly in the water, at the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” the Baltimore Police Department said in a statement. 

The Maryland Transportation Authority said the collapse occurred “due to ship strike.” The container ship Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel, struck the bridge at about 1:30 a.m., according to MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking company. The about 984-foot ship had departed from port in Baltimore at about 1 a.m. and was bound for Sri Lanka, the tracker said. 

Multiple vehicles plunged from the bridge at the time of the collapse, the Baltimore City Fire Department said. Overnight work had been underway on the bridge and divers were searching for at least seven people in the water, the department said. The bridge, which is part of Interstate 695, crosses the Patapsco River in Baltimore’s harbor. “All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge,” MDTA officials said in a statement at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday. “Traffic is being detoured.” 

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Alex Grainger, Sam Sweeney and Felicia Alvarez contributed to this story.

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Zoo releases final necropsy results on Flaco the owl’s death

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl who escaped from his vandalized Central Park Zoo enclosure in February 2023, had high levels of rat poison in his system and was suffering from “severe herpesvirus” that he contracted from eating pigeons when he died last month in Manhattan.

The post-mortem necropsy report was released Monday afternoon by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which runs New York City’s Central Park Zoo, revealing its findings regarding what caused Flaco’s demise on Feb. 23 of last year, when he was found critically injured in the courtyard of a residential building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

“Bronx Zoo veterinary pathologists determined that in addition to the traumatic injuries, Flaco had two significant underlying conditions. He had a severe pigeon herpesvirus from eating feral pigeons that had become part of his diet, and exposure to four different anticoagulant rodenticides that are commonly used for rat control in New York City,” according to the statement issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society. “These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building.”

Zoo officials said the identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal diseases in birds of prey, including owls, who can be infected by eating pigeons.

“This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls,” the WCS statement said. “In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain.”

No other contributing factors to Flaco’s death were identified by “the extensive testing that was performed,” the WCS said.

“Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors – infectious disease, toxin exposures, and traumatic injuries – that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting,” the zoo official said.

Toxicology testing also revealed trace amounts of DDE, a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT, the WCS said.

“But the levels detected in Flaco were not clinically significant and did not contribute to his death,” the WCS said. “Although DDT has been banned in the United States since the early 1970s, it and its breakdown products are remarkably persistent in the environment, and this finding is a reminder of the long legacy of DDT and its dire effects on wild bird populations.”

The WCS initially said preliminary results of the necropsy found that Flaco died after crashing into a building, leaving him with a “substantial hemorrhage” under the sternum and around the liver. No bone fractures were found in the initial report.

Flaco, dubbed “the most famous owl in the world,” became a cause célèbre during the year he spent as a free bird after bolting from his zoo exhibit on Feb. 2, 2023, when a vandal cut a hole in the stainless steel mesh covering his exhibit, police and zoo officials said at the time.

Flaco subsequently transformed from an obscure bird to a celebrity fowl and a symbol of freedom and resilience by defying the odds of survival in America’s largest city.

Having been hatched and raised in captivity for the first 12 years of his life, many avian experts doubted he had the flying skills and hunting abilities to survive outside of his enclosure.

Immediately after leaving the zoo, Flaco caused a stir on one of Manhattan’s most fashionable shopping streets, Fifth Avenue, where he landed on the sidewalk near the Bergdorf Goodman department store, drawing a crowd and the NYPD. Officers cordoned him off with yellow crime scene tape and set an open cage next to him, apparently in case he wanted to surrender. Before they could move in to catch him, however, the mottled-colored creature flew off into a tree in front of the Plaza Hotel.

“He’s certainly my most photographed bird of 2023” said David Barrett, the creator and manager of Manhattan Bird Alert, who encountered Flaco told ABC News last year. “He’s the most famous bird in the world.”

Flaco continued to draw crowds while his survival and flying skills rapidly improved, and the territory he explored expanded all the way downtown to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

After committing resources to recapture the bird, zoo officials released a statement on Feb. 12, 2023, saying they were scaling back on their recovery efforts after noticing that Flaco was successfully hunting for prey.

“Several days ago, we observed him successfully hunting, catching, and consuming prey. We have seen a rapid improvement in his flight skills and ability to confidently maneuver around the park,” zoo officials said at the time.

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Drag story hours continue to be targets amid conservative backlash

Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

(LANCASTER, Penn.) — Several drag queen story hours across the country have been faced with bomb threats, backlash and cancellations. On Saturday morning, Lancaster Public Library in Pennsylvania became the most recent story hour impacted by such threats.

A Lancaster City Police K-9 and Lancaster County Sheriff Deputy K-9 alerted handlers to a suspicious package inside the Lancaster Public Library during a preplanned sweep ahead of a drag story hour. Bomb threats had also been made via email with claims of explosive devices planted in the surrounding area.

After an investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police bomb squad, the scene was cleared and no explosive devices were found.

“Not only do bomb threats disrupt the peace and safety of our community, they waste valuable public resources,” said Lancaster Police Chief Richard Mendez. “Bomb threats will not be tolerated, and we are committed to identifying and prosecuting those responsible.”

Other recent drag events have also faced similar bomb threats, including story hours in Massachusetts and Minnesota, according to local reports.

Before the threat, the event faced backlash from some community members, including Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons.

He accused the event of being “not age appropriate” for children in a social media event earlier this month: “This is about the library signaling to the world that they are a fully woke, politicized organization and if you do not embrace their agenda completely, you are not welcomed at their library,” he said.

The hosts of the event, including Lancaster Pride, denied such claims, calling the event “100% family-friendly, age-appropriate.”

“They are turning something that is so innocent into something that it’s not, this is a family-friendly, fun time where we all get together and enjoy each other’s company,” Tiffany Shirley, president of Lancaster Pride told FOX43. She argues that opponents are misconstruing the event’s goal. “There’s no agenda, there is nothing indoctrinating or sexualizing in this event.”

A post for the event in Lancaster, in which a drag queen reads children’s books to attendees, states that the event “isn’t just about reading tales of wonder and imagination – it’s about celebrating diversity, fostering inclusivity, and teaching our children (and ourselves) the beautiful lesson of embracing everyone just as they are.”

Drag queen story hours have been at the center of recent conservative efforts to restrict drag events in public. In recent years, the U.S. has seen a record number of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community — including restrictions on drag events.

However, such bans have faced legal challenges. Laws in both Texas and Tennessee were blocked, with judges citing the First Amendment and calling drag bans unconstitutional.

Supporters of drag bans say the legislation “gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance,” said Sen. Jack Johnson, a sponsor of the Tennessee policy, in a tweet.

Simultaneously, drag shows, events and other LGBTQ+-related programs have seen a rise in threats, hate, and backlash.

Although threats have put drag performers, event hosts, and law enforcement on high alert, many say they refuse to hide in the face of hate.

“While we support the freedom of speech: we stand firm and cannot and we will not let hate, fear, and intimidation stop our collective movement for love and support for all. Many have been asking how to help, and in truth we are still determining the best way to channel all of this incredible energy,” Lancaster Pride posted on Facebook in reaction to the event’s cancellation.

The statement continued, “Today is a deeply challenging day for us, but we remain hopeful, thankful, and more determined than ever thanks to your continued support. We will continue to create a world where understanding, acceptance, and celebration is a reality for all of us.”
 

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Pregnant Amish woman was shot in head, 3-year-old son saw her killer come into their house: Court documents

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(SPARTA, Penn.) — A pregnant Amish woman’s 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son were home when she was attacked and killed, and the 3-year-old saw the killer, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The 3-year-old told police a green truck pulled into their driveway and a man wearing sneakers came inside their Sparta Township, Pennsylvania, home and killed his mom, the documents said.

Rebekah Byler, 23, was shot in the head and suffered multiple sharp force wounds to the neck in the Feb. 26 attack, according to court documents.

Shawn Cranston, 52, from Corry, Pennsylvania, was arrested on March 2 and faces charges of criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, burglary and criminal trespass, according to police. He has not entered a plea and his public defender did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Julie Warner, a driver for the victim’s family, said at about 8:15 a.m. on the day of the murder, she picked up the victim’s husband, Andy Byler, from his home to drive him to job sites, court documents said. When Warner and Andy Byler arrived back at his house that afternoon, they found Rebekah Byler dead, the documents said.

A surveillance camera captured a red Jeep leave Cranston’s home on the morning of the murder between 8:39 a.m. and 8:42 a.m., and the Jeep returned to Cranston’s house between 1:55 p.m. and 2:02 p.m., according to the newly unsealed court documents.

That afternoon, the video showed a white, apparently bald man at Cranston’s home moving items in and out of a red Jeep, and then an apparent fire started, the documents said.

A piece of a rubber glove recovered from the crime scene appears to match a glove found in the trash at Cranston’s home, according to the documents, and the tire tread on Cranston’s red Jeep appears to resemble the tire tread impressions found at the crime scene.

Andy Byler told police that about two weeks before his wife’s murder, a suspicious person arrived at their home at night, the documents said. Andy Byler said a bald, white man with a white beard came to the house, and “when confronted, the male inquired about purchasing the house,” the documents said.

A woman who lives near the victim, Katie Byler, told police that a man named John had been a driver for her husband, whom she’s recently separated from, the documents said. When John wasn’t available one day, John suggested his dad, Shawn, could work as a driver, the court documents said. The husband “accepted the ride from Shawn and immediately got an uneasy feeling about him,” the documents said.

Katie Byler and the two people she lives with told police that, from December to February, they “had very odd experiences with this individual they know as Shawn,” the documents said.

They told police that after Shawn gave Katie Byler’s husband a ride, “Shawn would randomly show up at their residence,” the documents said.

“On one occasion, Shawn drove a Jeep to their residence and parked in their driveway,” the documents said.

They said Shawn — wearing all black and carrying a small pistol in a holster on his belt — “was walking around their property looking aimlessly into their fields and his speech made no sense,” the court documents said. “He was inquiring as to when and where they attend church and that he wished to go with him.”

A neighbor of Rebekah Byler told police that 10 days before the murder, a bald, white man driving a red SUV pulled into her driveway, the documents said. The man then backed out of the driveway and drove toward Rebekah Byler’s house, she told police.

One woman was shown a photo of Cranston’s car, and she confirmed that she saw that car drive by 10 days before the murder, and she “indicated she believed” the driver’s first name was Shawn, according to the documents.

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Trump indicates he’d testify in hush money trial, says a conviction could ‘make me more popular’

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump indicated to ABC News on Monday that he would testify at his upcoming criminal trial in New York over a hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

“I would have no problem testifying,” he said when ABC News asked at a press conference, following his court appearance in the case, whether he would testify. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I don’t know how you can have a trial in the middle of a presidential election,” Trump said, repeating unsubstantiated claims that the legal battles he faces are a part of a political persecution by his opponents.

The judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, ruled Monday that the trial will begin on April 15, rejecting Trump’s request for an additional delay.

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.

The case, which was initially scheduled to begin jury selection on Monday, was adjourned for 30 days by Merchan earlier this month, after defense attorneys raised issues with the late production of over 100,000 pages of potential evidence by federal prosecutors.

Asked by ABC News at the press conference if a conviction could hurt his chances for reelection, Trump said, “It could also make me more popular.”

Separately, New York’s appellate court also ruled on Monday to lower Trump’s bond from $464 million to $175 million in a separate civil fraud case in which he was found to have inflated the value of his properties to get better loan terms.

If Trump testifies in the hush money case, it would be the third court testimony in this election cycle for Trump, who faces 88 charges across four criminal cases. He has denied all wrongdoing. Earlier this year, the former president took the stand in a New York defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, in which he was ordered to pay $83 million for defaming her.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump appeared uncertain about whether he would be spending his own money to support his campaign, after saying for days that he was planning to use his own money where he not thwarted by the $464 million judgment in his fraud case.

“Well, first of all, it’s none of your business,” Trump quipped when asked if he now plans to use his money to finance his campaign now that the bond amount has been lowered to $175 million. “I might do that. I have the option. But if I have to spend $500 million on the bond, I wouldn’t have that option. I’d have to start selling things.”

Trump said the original $464 million bond allowed him to “spend very little money on my campaign.”

“If I so choose, I’ll be spending money on my campaign,” Trump said. “I might spend a lot of money on my campaign. But I should have that option.”

Trump dismissed the idea of borrowing money from foreign entities to secure the $175 million bond.

“No, I don’t do that. I think you’d be allowed to, possibly. I don’t know,” Trump said. “The biggest banks frankly, are outside of our country. So you could do that but, I don’t need to borrow money. I have a lot of money.”

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Trump election interference case picks back up after Fani Willis disqualification bid

Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(ATLANTA) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case has scheduled a Thursday hearing to hear oral arguments on a number of motions from Trump and his co-defendant David Shafer.

The hearing will be the first since the failed disqualification effort against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case.

It comes after Judge Scott McAfee granted Trump permission to appeal his disqualification ruling — but vowed to move the case forward in the meantime.

McAfee earlier this month declined to outright disqualify Willis based on accusations that she benefited financially from a romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, but ruled that either she or Wade must step aside from the case. Wade subsequently resigned as special prosecutor.

Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.

Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.

The former president has blasted the district attorney’s investigation as being politically motivated.

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‘White Supremacy Campaign’ of 1898 a stain that will not escape history: experts

ABC News

(WILMINGTON, Nc.) — On Nov. 10, 1898, more than 2,000 white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, ransacked a Black-owned newspaper, Black-owned banks and forced the city’s local leaders, which included a mix of white and Black elected officials, to resign in what historians call the only successful coup in U.S. history.

Now historians, residents and descendants of the victims are working to ensure that one of the darkest days in Wilmington’s history doesn’t remain lost and forgotten.

While the city has been working to identify and honor the victims of the insurrection who lost everything, some of their descendants, like Inez Campbell-Eason, say more needs to be done to rectify the sins of the past.

“I was really angry. I used to cry all the time, like angry, fiery, angry tears, because this is generational wealth that was taken away from my family,” she told ABC News.

Campbell-Eason said she only found out a few years ago about the insurrection and how her great, great grandfather Isham Quick was evicted from town banks that he successfully managed.

Campbell-Eason was visiting a museum that had hired a black curator, who pulled out old records about her ancestor. Campbell-Eason said she learned Quick, a freed slave, joined the board of directors for Wilmington’s first Black-owned bank, the Perpetual Savings and the People’s Perpetual Savings and Loan, in 1887.

He ended up owning three banks in Wilmington and records show he had at least $2 million in holdings. His two white business partners took over the banks after he was forced out during the coup, she said.

Historians said that such economic success among Black Wilmington residents was not uncommon during the end of the 19th century. Many of those entrepreneurs worked with white business owners, according to historians.

The city’s elected office was also made up of former slaves and white men.

“It was basically the Black Mecca of the South,” Campbell-Eason said.

That integrated coalition, however, did not sit well with white supremacists around the state who were already making efforts to limit Black businesses and promote the passage of Jim Crow laws, according to historians.

LeRae Umfleet, a state historian, told ABC News that white supremacists took aim at the Wilmington city election of 1898 to further their agenda and that campaign led to the coup.

Tensions rose in August of that year when white Wilmington newspapers ran a racist speech from the year before by Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia.

“Essentially that article said all Black men have one thing that they want to do in life and that’s to rape white women. And so we need to do everything we can to protect white womanhood. And if that means lynching a Black man today, then she says lynch,” Umfleet said.

Alex Manly, the editor of one of the city’s Black-owned newspapers, responded to the speech with an editorial.

“He essentially said that white women choose to be with Black men,” Umfleet said. “And that was an insult to the white leadership that a white woman would choose to be with a Black man. So he becomes a target.”

A week after white supremacist candidates won the election, Alfred Moore Wadell, a former Confederate soldier, led a group of men with torches and burned Manly’s newspaper office, historians said.

The mob grew and they raided city hall, where they violently threw out the racially diverse city leaders who still had another year in office and forced them to resign from their positions.

Wadell then became the mayor.

“We call it the only successful coup in the United States history because there have been other attempts and those attempted coups did not last longer than a day or a week,” Umfleet said. “This time it stuck and was reaffirmed at the next election and every other election subsequent…until the advent of the Civil Rights Movement.”

An estimated 300 Black residents were murdered during the incident, historians said. Those who fled the violent mob, who historians say used a Gatling gun on Black residents and businesses during the coup, took shelter inside churches and a segregated cemetery until it was safe to go outside.

The story was left out of history books and local lore for over a century.

“African-Americans did not want to talk about that. You know, they were kind of told not to talk about it. And so it kind of went underground,” genealogist Tim Pinnick told ABC News.

But in recent years, the city has worked to rectify this problem. It has set up makeshift tombstones of the people killed in the event. A school that was named after one of the white supremacist perpetrators of the coup was renamed to Mason Borough Elementary.

Pinnick has been using DNA databases to find the descendants of the victims who were across the country and spread the word about what happened.

“We’re going to keep finding people because that’s what our mission is now,” he said.

But some Black residents say more needs to be done to undo the century of damage done to the community.

Campbell-Eason said she would like to see the properties that her ancestor owned returned to her and her family or other financial reparations.

She dismissed arguments that taxpayers of the day should not pay for past crimes.

“Yesterday’s crimes helped this country to amass the wealth that it has today,” she argued.

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Teens gunned down at Nashville apartment complex were ‘targeted’: Police

ABC News/WKRN

(NASHVILLE, Tn.) — At least three assailants were being sought Monday in the killings of two teenagers police said were “targeted” in a shooting at a Nashville apartment complex over the weekend.

One of the victims was identified as 17-year-old Camron McGlothen, who lived at the Hermitage Flats Apartments in East Nashville, according to police. The name of the other victim, an 18-year-old, was withheld by police, pending the notification of his relatives.

“Homicide Unit detectives are pursuing leads as they work to determine why two young men, ages 18 and 17, were targeted for fatal gunfire,” the Nashville Police Department said in a statement.

The double homicide unfolded around 4:45 p.m. local time on Saturday when three assailants, one wearing a ski mask, approached the two teenagers who were standing in a breezeway at the apartment complex and opened fire, according to police.

Both victims were shot multiple times, according to authorities.

When police officers arrived, they found the mortally wounded victims on the ground and unresponsive, police said. The older teenager was pronounced dead at the scene, while McGlothen was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said. 

“The suspects reportedly fled from the apartment complex after the victims were down,” police said in a statement.

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Juvenile dies in ‘critical’ incident in LA Sheriff’s station lobby, department says

ABC News/KABC

A juvenile died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an altercation with deputies in the lobby of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station on Sunday evening, the department said.

The juvenile, whose age and name have not been released, knocked on the door of the department’s Industry station at about 7:40 p.m. on Sunday evening, law enforcement said in an updated advisory early Monday.

“The deputies walked to the lobby door,” the department said. “At which time the juvenile lunged into the lobby and reached for the deputy’s holstered firearm and took possession of it.”

A “struggle” ensued between deputies and the armed juvenile, who was identified as a “female Hispanic juvenile,” according to the advisory.

“During the struggle, the juvenile suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the department said.

ABC News has reached out to the department for comment.

“This was not a Deputy Involved Shooting incident,” the department said in an earlier advisory.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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1st fatal California mountain lion attack in 20 years leaves 1 man dead and his brother injured

ABC News

A weekend outing to the Northern California woods took a horrific turn for two brothers when a mountain lion attacked them, killing one and leaving the other with traumatic injuries to the face, authorities said.

This was the first fatal attack by a cougar in the state in 20 years, California officials said.

The attack unfolded Saturday afternoon while the brothers, ages 21 and 18, were out searching for shed deer antlers near the El Dorado National Forest, about 52 miles northeast of Sacramento, authorities said.

The teenager who survived the attack called 911 at about 1:13 p.m. PT, reporting they had been attacked by a cougar and that he had become separated from his older sibling, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.

When sheriff’s deputies and paramedics arrived at the scene near Georgetown around 1:34 p.m., they located the injured teenager and began administering first aid, according to the sheriff’s office.

Additional deputies sent to the scene launched a search for the teenager’s brother, finding him nearby lying motionless on the ground with the mountain lion crouched between them and the mortally injured man, according to the sheriff’s office.

“Deputies discharged their firearms in order to scare the mountain lion off so they could render medical aid,” the sheriff’s office said.

But by the time they reached the victim, he was dead, authorities said.

The teenager was taken to a local hospital where he was being treated. Information on his condition was not immediately disclosed.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife game wardens and an El Dorado County trapper combed the area for the mountain lion, authorities said.

“The mountain lion was dispatched, and the body of the mountain lion was collected for further examination,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare in California, authorities said. According to state fish and wildlife officials, the last recorded fatal mountain lion attack in California occurred in January 2004, when a 35-year-old cyclist was killed on a trail in Orange County, authorities said.

The last fatal mountain lion attack in El Dorado County occurred in April 1994, when a 40-year-old woman was killed in the Auburn State Recreation Area, according to officials.

Since 1890, fewer than 50 mountain lion attacks on humans have been reported in California, including six that have been fatal, officials said.

In February, a group of cyclists near Seattle, Washington, were credited with saving a fellow rider’s life by fighting off a cougar that attacked her on a trail, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The scary wildlife-human encounter happened near Fall City, Washington, about 25 miles southeast of Seattle and left the 60-year-old rider, Keri Bergere, hospitalized with serious injuries, officials said. Four other cyclists were hurt when they rushed to save Bergere, who suffered injuries to her face, neck and jaw.

“I just think all the time how I could be dead if my four ladies that I was with didn’t jump in and save my life,” Bergere said in an interview with ABC News last week. “We call fought out there, but I could not have done it on my own.”

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