(NEW YORK) — The driver of an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer is lucky to be alive after he narrowly escaped a massive collision with an oncoming train outside Atlanta this week.
The incident, which was captured on video, happened early Tuesday morning off Allatoona Road near Interstate 75 in Bartow County, Georgia.
Zack Hatcher was right behind the tractor-trailer that had stalled on train tracks and first shared the video with ABC Atlanta station WSB-TV.
In his video, the blaring of train horns can be heard as the railroad crossing arms lower and a man is seen hopping out of the driver’s side of the truck, making a run for it moments before the train made impact.
Debris flies as the trailer tumbles over, and Hatcher, who was not too far from the incident, has to back up his own car to avoid being hit.
The train eventually comes to a stop and Hatcher climbs between two of the train cars to go check on the truck driver, who appears miraculously unharmed.
“The engineer and conductor both stated that they could see the truck stopped on the tracks — they started breaking as soon as they saw the truck, but they were not able to stop in time,” Capt. Lisa Fuller of the City of Emerson Police Department told ABC News.
Authorities said this marks the eighth documented incident at this same train crossing since 2017, but the first collision, and the driver left with a citation for driving a vehicle over a railroad crossing with insufficient space to drive completely through the crossing without stopping.
“There were no injuries — thankfully,” Fuller confirmed. “There’s been incidents before where the the drivers weren’t able to get out of the vehicles.”
Authorities said other trucks have stalled at that same location in the past, due to the turning radius near the tracks. Some trucks cannot clear it, but none have gotten stuck on the tracks before this accident, they said.
Roadside service provider AAA shared some additional tips for drivers near train crossings:
– Slow down when crossing train tracks. – Never stop on the train tracks or between the down gate and tracks. – Ensure there is room on the other side of the tracks before crossing. – Obey all signals, lights, bells and gates. – Do not drive around a gate that is down. – Be aware of your surroundings. – Listen for trains, train whistles and warning bells. – Look for trains, stopped vehicles, lowered gates and warning lights. – Avoid distractions when driving.
(NEW YORK) — A woman is speaking out after sinking into quicksand along the Maine coast.
Jamie Acord said she was walking with her husband near the water on a Maine beach when she suddenly sank up to her hips and found herself trapped waist deep in sand.
“We were probably 10 feet from the sand dunes and I just dropped into the ground,” Jamie Acord recalled to ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Jamie Acord’s husband Patrick Acord said he noticed her legs were suddenly out of sight.
“I was right beside her and she dropped down, like a couple feet back,” Patrick Acord said.
Patrick Acord was able to pull his wife out of the sand quickly.
“I was just covered in mud and we turned around and looked back and there was no hole,” Jamie Acord said. “And so it was one of those moments where it’s like, did that really happen?”
Jamie Acord’s quicksand encounter isn’t isolated. Others on social media have posted about how quickly a quicksand experience can unfold.
Experts say quicksand — super saturated sand or sand that has become nearly liquified with water — is common around the world.
“Anywhere you’re adjacent to a water body, there’s a chance you could potentially have it,” explained Peter Slovinsky, a marine geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. “Most of the time you would encounter quicksand is in areas of the beach that are kind of below the high tide line.”
Experts say one should stay calm if they find themselves in a quicksand situation.
“You are more buoyant than quicksand,” Slovinsky said. “You’re not going to sink down into it over your head. If you walk into it and kind of get stuck, there’s a good chance you’re going to be getting out of it.”
(ATLANTA) — One person was fatally shot in connection with a bus hijacking that prompted a police chase through two Georgia counties on Tuesday, authorities said.
The incident began at approximately 4:35 p.m. ET in downtown Atlanta, when police responded to a report of gunfire on a Gwinnett County Transit bus and a “possible hostage situation,” the Atlanta Police Department said.
“Upon the officers’ arrival at the scene, the bus fled the location, and a pursuit ensued,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a press release.
The suspect held the bus driver at gunpoint during the hijacking, according to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
There were 17 people on the bus at the time, including the bus driver, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
During the pursuit, police received a 911 call from a family member of an occupant of the bus “saying he was receiving text messages that there had been a hijacking and that individuals were being held hostage against their will,” Schierbaum told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday evening.
Police then received another 911 call made from the bus, which remained open throughout the pursuit and provided information that helped “craft an end of this hostage situation,” the chief said.
The ensuing pursuit spanned multiple jurisdictions, during which police attempted “various tactics” to stop the bus, police said. The vehicle was ultimately disabled by a SWAT vehicle in Stone Mountain in DeKalb County, approximately 16 miles northeast of where the incident began, police said.
DeKalb County SWAT officers “strategically positioned the Bearcat to prevent any avenues of escape,” the DeKalb County Police Department said in a statement.
The suspect — a 39-year-old man from Stone Mountain — was taken into custody without further incident, police said.
SWAT officers found the gunshot victim while clearing the bus, DeKalb County police said. The victim was transported in critical condition to a local hospital, where they died, Atlanta police said. The name of the victim has not yet been released, pending family notification.
Investigators are working to determine when the shooting occurred, Schierbaum said.
No other injuries were reported.
The investigation remains ongoing, Atlanta police said.
The bus shooting and hijacking occurred after a separate, unrelated incident where gunfire broke out at a food court at a downtown Atlanta shopping center on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Three people were injured, and an off-duty Atlanta police officer shot the armed suspect, police said.
The suspect in the bus hijacking boarded the bus near the shopping center but was not involved in that shooting, Schierbaum said. The suspects in both incidents are convicted felons, he said.
Mayor Dickens decried the spate of gun violence that occurred Tuesday and said it is the “result of too many people having guns in their hands.”
“We all have to say enough is enough when it comes to too many people having guns in their hands and using them in violence,” he said. “I’m thankful for the men and women of the Atlanta Police Department and all these agencies here that minimized what could have been even more dangerous.”
In an aerial view, salvage crews continue to clean up wreckage from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Patapsco River on June 11, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(BALTIMORE) — The Port of Baltimore’s federal channel was safely reopened to its original dimensions of 700 feet wide by 500 feet deep without any major injuries, The White House said.
Work continues to remove debris outside of the McHenry Federal Channel, and a safety zone will be maintained to protect workers. Deep draft vessels will be required to have a single escort tug until the work is complete.
The preliminary costs to rebuild the bridge as quoted by the Department of Transportation are between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, officials said.
A 984-foot-long cargo ship, the Dali, struck the Key Bridge on March 26, triggering a collapse that killed six workers and affected entry into the port. The ship was refloated and moved from the crash site on May 20.
Around 50,000 tons of steel were cleared, equivalent to 3,800 fully loaded dump trucks, according to Maj. Gen. Butch Graham of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Graham credited crane operators, divers, mariners and salvage workers for their efforts, stating they have been working below, underneath and on the Patapsco River since March 30.
According to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, traffic redirected to other ports earlier should now be able to pass through.
“Our belief and expectation is that all of those disruptions and adaptations, as important as they were, were temporary and that traffic that would have been going to Baltimore the day before this happened, belongs in Baltimore today,” the secretary said.
He added, “We have every indication that that is what is taking place, but we’ll be reinforcing that expectation as we speak with players up and down the supply chains, including a conversation that we plan to have later this week.”
Buttigieg said the port opening’s major impact would be on local workers, especially the International Longshoremen’s Association workers, as they were not working with ships not arriving at the Port of Baltimore.
“We felt enormous urgency about making sure that we did everything we could to get back to normal there,” he said. “And now those workers can count on that business returning. It’s been a gradual process, and some of them have been working for some time. Now we can say that it is fully back to normal.”
Buttigieg reiterated President Joe Biden’s intention to secure federal funding for rebuilding the bridge and added that the Maryland delegation is leading a process in Congress to make that happen.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Police in Memphis have detained two people after three juveniles and one adult were left critically injured in a shooting incident on Tuesday night, officials said.
Memphis Police responded to a shooting call at 5:12 p.m. CT near 240 West and Poplar Avenue.
Four people found injured were taken to Baptist East hospital, where they remain in critical condition, police said.
While investigating, officers spotted a suspect vehicle and police began a pursuit, officials said. As the chase ensued, one officer was in a car wreck at the 3500 block of James.
With other officers still in pursuit of the suspect vehicle, the suspect — who has not been named — also ended up in a wreck.
Police detained two individuals after what they said was “a brief foot chase” that followed the vehicle pursuit.
The officer who was involved in the wreck is uninjured, Memphis police said.
(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said Tuesday night it’s stepping in at the request of the Atlanta Police Department to investigate following an officer-involved shooting at an Atlanta mall earlier in the day.
Jeremy Malone, 34, who the GBI has identified as a suspect, went to the Peachtree Center Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, around 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Inside the mall, he “got into an altercation with a man, and Malone pulled out a gun and shot him,” the GBI alleged.
The suspect also shot and injured two other people in the food court, police and the GBI said.
As people fled for safety, an off-duty Atlanta police officer confronted the armed suspect and shot him, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
The three victims and the suspect were treated at local hospitals. The victims are said to be in stable condition and receiving treatment, the GBI said Tuesday night.
The victims were identified as a 47-year-old man, a 69-year-old woman and a 70-year-old woman, police said.
Malone has since been released into the custody of the Atlanta police, officials said.
The suspect’s handgun was recovered, police said.
The suspect has served prison time for armed robbery, Schierbaum said.
“This is an individual who should have never been possessing a gun,” Schierbaum said.
(NEW YORK) — Xavier Walker’s biggest fear when he was outed as gay was that he would be killed.
“In the community, going to school, I had to be very mindful,” Walker, an asylum seeker from Jamaica living in the United States, told ABC News, reflecting on his embattled childhood.
“Pretend you are straight, act straight, don’t make eye contact, don’t try to draw attention to yourself because once they figure out you’re gay, you’re going to be in trouble,” Walker said.
In Jamaica, it is illegal to be gay under the country’s Offences Against the Person Act.
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has been growing around the world, according to the human rights research group Institute for Strategic Dialogue, as political movements rallying against gender and sexual minorities gain traction.
“I think eventually – hopefully – Jamaica will become a way where you’re more open-minded, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” said Walker. “Sometimes when I see, for example, Gay Pride happening there, I think: ‘Okay, they’re being more open.’ But then I hear on the news ‘Oh, someone just got killed because he’s gay.'”
He continued, “Every time you think they’re taking one step forward, they take 20 steps back.”
The Jamaican government has argued that it doesn’t enforce its 1864 anti-sodomy laws, however, it remains on the books despite pleas from activists for it to be repealed.
Walker said he was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of an older male relative when he was about 9 years old. He said some in his community didn’t see him as a victim, instead blaming him for the abuse, which he said incited years of anti-gay discrimination and stigma.
“Queer people suffer rampant rates of discrimination across all elements of public and private life, ranging from seeking public services and health care to education and employer discrimination,” Hester Moore, director of gender-based violence programs with HIAS, an international nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees, told ABC News.
Walker left Jamaica to seek asylum in America nine years ago around the age of 22. He has been waiting to have his application accepted ever since as a client of Immigration Equality, which provides free legal help to LGTBQ+ asylum seekers and refugees.
“The language is essentially the same,” Moore said of anti-migration sentiment toward queer asylum seekers around the world. “It weaves this global fabric of otherness, of exclusion. It’s a very specific, targeted type of violence that refugees, and particularly those with gendered experiences of harm, feel most acutely.”
For some queer migrants, the U.S. is seen as a safe haven — despite a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and hate alongside an increasingly intensified spotlight on migration policies.
“There’s a harsh reality, for folks who are seeking protection in the United States that, sure, they may not be in imminent danger once they’re able to enter the country but the dangers of being a queer person, or being a trans person or being a gay person, don’t disappear,” Derek Loh, an attorney for the Acacia Center For Justice, told ABC News.
Loh said the “bureaucracy of the immigration process” can be grueling, especially for those arguing for asylum on the basis of discrimination for being queer.
Individuals seeking asylum in the U.S. must demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution” citing one of five factors: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, according to Immigration Equality, which notes that being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is classified as a particular social group.
Examples of corroborating evidence to submit an asylum claim include: proving your sexual orientation, proving you are transgender or non-binary, proving persecution in your native country, proving the conditions of intolerance in your native country or providing HIV status, if applicable, according to LGBT Immigration Law.
While there is no official public data on how many migrants seek asylum under LGBTQ+ related social groups, a 2021 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that 1.3 million adult immigrants in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+ — including 289,700 who are undocumented and 984,800 who are documented.
Loh said detailing asylum claims can be incredibly vulnerable for individuals who have spent their whole lives hiding their identities for safety.
“The immigration system is asking them to share all those very intimate details, oftentimes in settings that are not confidential or private,” Loh said, adding that these discussions are often in communal, ICE detention centers.
“So the danger levels and the fears are all heightened,” Loh continued.
“It’s about finding the time and space to help folks tell their stories in ways that are clear and fit this relatively narrow definition of what asylum is under U.S. immigration law,” Loh said.
Seeking asylum in the U.S. could take years due to the backlog of applications and limited staffing in the immigration courts and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to Emem Maurus, an attorney with the Transgender Law Center.
“You’re not climbing one mountain, you’re climbing like six,” Maurus told ABC News of asylum-seeking, adding that the militarization of the process acts as a “deterrence policy.”
“We have definitely had a number of people give up,” Maurus said.
President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to turn away migrants seeking asylum along the southern border if the encounters there have exceeded 2,500 daily encounters for seven consecutive days.
“The administration is taking decisive action designed to strengthen the security of our southern border and reduce unlawful migration by suspending the entry of individuals across the southern border,” a Biden administration official said earlier this month.
The migrant’s country of origin doesn’t matter, officials said, and individuals will be removed to their country of origin in a matter of “days, if not hours,” under the new executive rule.
“I thank God that I already passed through that process, and that I’m already saved, but I’m just thinking about people that are just trying to get to the U.S. just to survive,” said Nelson García, an asylum grantee from Venezuela. “They’re just asking for help. And when you see all these barriers and walls built to not allow them to request a safe haven here, it’s really concerning.”
García waited seven years after fleeing his country due to persecution for his sexual orientation.
“Uncertainty, doubt, frustration, sadness – that was part of my day-by-day throughout those seven years,” García, who now works as an immigration paralegal manager, told ABC News.
García, a gay man, said discrimination came from “everywhere.”
“Not only from the government, but also from my classmates, from my professors, even from my own family,” he said. “It was more like a psychological abuse that I endured, at some point it got physical, but that was when I was exiting the country that I got apprehended by the police once and I was beaten.”
When he came to the U.S. at 21 years old, he said he still felt lost and alone.
“I was coming from a very traumatizing experience that I was enduring for almost my entire life there,” García said. “I was literally struggling to survive day-to-day,” until he found help from Immigration Equality, a nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ people in the immigration system.
Experiencing Pride month in the U.S. as someone who faced discrimination in hostility for sexual orientation in Venezuela has been a comforting experience for García.
“I feel complete,” he told ABC News. “I made peace with myself and say: ‘You see, there was nothing that you needed to change. because you are gay, … there’s nothing that you have to be worried about who you are and what you are right now.'”
During Pride Month 2024, Maurus reflected on a quote attributed to Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender pioneer and key figure in the 1969 Stonewall riots: “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
“Pride is a month to remind ourselves of how far we’ve come,” Maurus said, “but until LGBTQ+ people are not in detention centers and being unnecessarily harmed during an arduous migration process, we still have a ways to go towards the liberation of all of us.”
(ATLANTA) — One person was fatally shot in connection with a bus hijacking that prompted a police chase through two Georgia counties on Tuesday, authorities said.
The incident began at approximately 4:35 p.m. ET in downtown Atlanta, when police responded to a report of gunfire on a Gwinnett County Transit bus and a “possible hostage situation,” the Atlanta Police Department said.
“Upon the officers’ arrival at the scene, the bus fled the location, and a pursuit ensued,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a press release.
Several passengers were on the bus when it was hijacked, police said.
The ensuing pursuit spanned multiple jurisdictions, during which police attempted “various tactics” to stop the bus, police said. The vehicle ultimately stopped in Stone Mountain in DeKalb County, approximately 16 miles northeast of where the incident began, police said.
Once the bus came to a stop, DeKalb County SWAT officers “strategically positioned the Bearcat to prevent any avenues of escape,” the DeKalb County Police Department said in a statement.
The suspect — a 39-year-old man — was taken into custody without further incident, police said.
SWAT officers found the gunshot victim while clearing the bus, DeKalb County police said. The victim was transported in critical condition to a local hospital, where they died, Atlanta police said. No further details on the victim were provided by police.
No other injuries were reported.
The investigation remains ongoing, Atlanta police said.
(DETROIT) — School officials are investigating after a now-former employee at a Michigan middle school allegedly choked a 14-year-old student with a shirt, in an incident captured on surveillance footage.
The employee is no longer working at Ypsilanti Community Schools “effective immediately,” the school district said Monday.
The alleged “assault” occurred on June 4 at Ypsilanti Middle School and involved the teen’s “trusted coach,” according to the family’s attorney, Jordan Vahdat.
Surveillance footage of the incident shows the employee approaching the student from behind as the teen, identified by his family as Michael Moon, walks down a hallway. The employee then appears to raise a shirt over the head of the teen, who then struggles to get loose before breaking free and walking away, the footage shows. The incident captured in the video lasted fewer than 20 seconds.
Vahdat said in a statement to ABC News that his firm is “investigating the horrific assault and battery” on the student-athlete.
The employee is no longer working at the school district and is not allowed to be on school property or attend school events, according to Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross.
“Our district is dedicated to creating a safe and supportive environment for all students,” Zachery-Ross said in a statement. “The actions of the employee are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our district.”
“We will continue to implement and enforce policies that protect our students and ensure their well-being,” her statement continued.
In a letter sent to the school community on Monday, Zachery-Ross said the school district “immediately” contacted social services authorities and began cooperating with local law enforcement upon learning about the incident.
“We understand the concern this incident may cause within our community,” the letter stated. “Please know that we are committed to continuing to fully cooperate with the involved authorities.”
Michael’s parents said they reported the incident to police, who subsequently showed them the surveillance footage of the incident. His mother, Yolanda Ellis, told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ she was “horrified” by what she saw and the incident made her “lose trust in that coach, because he was someone that Michael looked up to.”
MORE: Transgender student alleges assault after using bathroom, family calls for charges The incident allegedly occurred after the coach — who also served as a hall monitor — ordered Michael to do pushups because he was horsing around in the hallway, but the teen declined because he had hurt his hand, his parents told WXYZ.
His parents are calling for charges in the incident.
“I need this man to pay for what he did to my son, and that means being fired, losing his job and sitting in jail,” Michael’s father, Steve Moon, told WXYZ. “I need him to know that what he did was wrong.”
The Ypsilanti Police Department referred ABC News to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office. ABC News has reached out to the prosecutor’s office for an update on the case and whether any charges will be filed.
Efforts to reach the former employee for comment were unsuccessful.
(ATLANTA) — A fight sparked a shooting that injured three people in a food court at a downtown Atlanta shopping center on Tuesday afternoon, according to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
An altercation between two people broke out at the Hub at Peachtree Center, and then one person pulled out a handgun and shot the person they were fighting with, police said.
The suspect, 34, also shot and injured two other people in the food court, police said.
As people fled for safety, an off-duty Atlanta police officer confronted the armed suspect and shot him, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
Everyone injured is “alert, conscious and breathing,” police said.
The victims were identified as a 47-year-old man, 69-year-old woman and 70-year-old woman, police said.
The suspect’s handgun has been recovered, police said.
The suspect has served prison time for armed robbery, Schierbaum said.
“This is an individual who should have never been possessing a gun,” Schierbaum said.
