(NEW YORK) — A hiker who was stranded on the side of a cliff in the San Francisco Bay Area is speaking out exclusively to ABC News for the first time since being rescued.
Cody Cretini said he had been on a beach walk with his girlfriend on Easter when he decided to take a shortcut up a hill.
“I decided to climb the cliff, you know, be brave, be adventurous,” Cretini said. “And so I started climbing and about 40 or 50 feet up, I get to a spot where all the rocks start crumbling and like, every rock that I grab just gets removed from the cliff.”
Cretini’s girlfriend rushed to get help as the 22-year-old became trapped, dangling more than 50 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
“When help arrived, I knew that I only had to hold on a little bit longer and that it was almost over,” Cretini said.
But the rescue mission would last for almost an hour and Cretini said he started to get tired. At one point, Cretini said he was holding on by just one hand and his feet that didn’t fully fit on a rock.
“My muscles were tired. I was cramping and I knew if I fell … it wasn’t going to be good,” Cretini said.
The helicopter teams said they feared Cretini could slip at any moment.
“My fear is he was going to let go,” Larry Matelli, a deputy sheriff and tactical flight officer for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office, told ABC News. “And I realized as soon as he did, he was going to start sliding. So I was giving him clear instructions. ‘Do not let go. Do not let go.’ And I was able to feed the rescue device around him.”
Rescuers had to use night vision to find Cretini, who was barely visible as he hung above crashing waves.
“This one had a very technical nature to it in that the victim, you know, was ‘Spider-Manned’ onto the cliff. He didn’t have a ledge to get any pitches on,” Nigel Cooper, a pilot for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office, told ABC News.
Cretini emerged from the harrowing experience with just a few scrapes and bruises and said he’s grateful to the rescue teams.
“The helicopter and the person who, like, grabbed me and saved me, don’t know where I’d be without them,” Cretini said. “Like, I definitely needed them there. They really helped a lot.”
(NEW YORK) — Dangerous tornadoes tore through the central U.S. Tuesday night, including Kentucky, where reported twisters flattened buildings, ripped off roofs and littered streets with debris.
In the last 48 hours, at least 20 tornadoes were reported across nine states: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Many schools across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana announced closures or early dismissals Tuesday as the storms moved in.
In Kentucky, where wind gusts topped 100 mph, Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, saying there were “reports of substantial damage to a number of structures.”
Jordan Yuodis, spokesperson for Anchorage Middletown Fire and EMS in Kentucky, told ABC News, “Within a matter of what seemed like minutes, [the weather] went from about 70-75 degrees and sunny to suddenly pitch black and debris flying.”
Shortly after 5:15 p.m., officials activated the outdoor warning sirens, Yuodis said.
“Within minutes, we started receiving 911 calls of homes damaged, people trapped in their homes, roads being shut down,” he said.
“We responded to multiple homes where the roofs had been completely taken off,” Yuodis said. “The roof from one house went across the street and ended up into another home.”
“Thanks to the timely forecasts and warnings provided by the National Weather Service, people were able to seek shelter, which, to our knowledge, has been effective,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Tuesday night. “I’m pleased to report that as of now, there are no reported injuries or fatalities. … There is definitely roof damage, significant damage to homes.”
On Wednesday, the line of storms is targeting the Interstate 95 corridor from Florida to New Jersey.
The tornado threat is lower, but isolated tornadoes are still possible in North Carolina and Virginia. Damaging winds are expected in Florida and South Carolina.
In this Aug. 21, 2017, file photo, the moon transits the sun during the 2017 total solar eclipse, as seen from Weiser, Idaho. (Kyle Green/Idaho Statesman via TNS via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When millions of people look to the skies on April 8 to witness the total solar eclipse, scientists will be studying how the phenomenon will affect plant and animal activity on Earth.
The eclipse may last just mere minutes for those in the path of totality, but the effect it has on the natural world will be profound, researchers told ABC News.
Plants and animals will begin to react in the lead-up to totality as the light begins to dim, said Angela Speck, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“Once it gets to about 75%, 80% eclipsed, there’s enough sunlight missing that animals will start to react,” she said.
About 20 minutes from totality, birds will start to flock. Some will quiet down. Farm animals, like cows and chickens, will walk back to the barn because they think it’s now nighttime, previous research as shown.
Then, once totality hits, the behavior will start to change again, Speck said.
Previous research has shown that bees stop buzzing during totality and returned to their hives. Then, when the sunlight re-appeared, the bees seemed disoriented, according to a paper published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America after the 2017 eclipse.
“This transition out of it is probably something that they’re not expecting, and I think that could be a period of confusion,” Brent Pease, an assistant professor at South Illinois University’s School of Forestry and Horticulture, told ABC News. “It’s hard to exactly say what these individuals or animals are experiencing.”
A study conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia during the 2017 eclipse found that some plants closed up during totality and others followed the sun as the moon moved over it.
Based on reports dating all the way back to the 1500s, researchers can expect breeding birds to quiet down during the eclipse, Pease said. This is likely a defense mechanism, to avoid detection from predators during dark periods, he added.
The driver behind most of these effects is a big change in light stimuli, Pease said.
Birds think it’s “bedtime,” Speck said.
Crepuscular nocturnal insects, such as crickets, will begin to vocalize as the light dissipates, Pease said.
“Crickets respond very quickly to changes in light sources,” he said.
There is also evidence that spiders will begin to engage in web maintenance — typically a nighttime behavior for them to catch potential meals overnight, Pease explained.
One interesting case occurred with the Galapagos tortoise, a study published in the National Library of Medicine in 2020 found. The typically slow and lethargic species were observed to get the urge to mate during the 2017 eclipse, the researchers observed.
While various studies have already been done, researchers will continue to study the impact of a total solar eclipse — especially given how long it will be until the next solar eclipse occurs.
At Southern Illinois University, scientists will be studying insects and birds in the regions based on soundscapes made during the eclipse, Pease said.
The project, part of the NASA-funded Eclipse Soundscapes project, relies on citizen science reporting for the breadth of its data, with more than 200 participants in 64 counties in the Midwest, Pease said.
“We’re increasing scientific engagement around the really exciting event, and we’re really kind of increasing scientific accessibility,” Pease said.
It will be another 350 years before a total solar eclipse passes through southern Illinois, Pease said, emphasizing the importance of the research that’s taking place on April 8.
What is not clear is what happens to nocturnal animals when the eclipse occurs, Speck said. There are several bat caves in the San Antonio region that will be examined, Speck said.
For this eclipse, there will be several accredited zoos on the path of totality, allowing researchers to observe animal behavior more closely, Speck noted.
Those on the path of totality can also expect the temperature to drop significantly, Speck said. Depending on the humidity, temperatures could drop up to 10 degrees in the minutes the sun is completely covered in regions that are experiencing dry conditions.
“There’s a lot of experiments on just understanding how the atmosphere is changing as we switch off the sun,” Speck said.
Amphibians often react quickly to changes in light that cause changes in temperature — even “micro” changes in temperature, Pease said.
Researchers expect the vast majority of the impacts to be temporarily, lasting just minutes.
“We’ve got hundreds of years of information about what might be happening with the wildlife communities,” Pease said. “But the exciting thing here is all of those hundreds of years of information are just qualitative. Now we’re at a point where we have the conservation technology and the computing power to quantitatively assess very precisely exactly how things are changing and how these changes might dissipate with distance from the path of totality.”
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A suspect who allegedly opened fire during an Easter brunch in Tennessee was arrested in neighboring Kentucky, police said.
Anton Rucker, 46, is a suspect in the shooting that killed 33-year-old Allen Beachem and injured five others “non-critically” in Nashville on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Rucker was taken into custody at a residence in Princeton, Kentucky, Nashville officials said late Tuesday.
“He came out & surrendered without incident,” police said on social media. “Rucker is being jailed in KY on a fugitive from justice warrant.”
The shooting stemmed from an altercation between the two men while brunch was being served at Roasted in Nashville, according to Don Aaron, the public relations director for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
As the altercation escalated, Rucker allegedly pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots, Aaron said.
Authorities have no information that the two men knew each other.
A total of eight people were transported from the scene, including the man who died, police said. One of the injured suffered a graze wound, though it was not clear if the person had been shot or became injured by scraping against something.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a “Get Out The Vote” rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Ga., March 9, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s lawyers are again asking Judge Juan Merchan to recuse himself from the former president’s New York hush money trial, seven months after the judge declined a similar request by defense lawyers.
Defense lawyers filed a letter Monday arguing that Merchan’s daughter’s work for the digital consulting firm Authentic Campaigns creates an “ongoing financial interest” tied to the former president’s criminal trial.
“Under these circumstances, Your Honor has an interest in this case that warrants recusal, there is an unacceptable risk that the Court’s family relationships will influence judicial conduct, and the Court’s impartiality ‘might reasonably be questioned,'” defense lawyer Todd Blanche wrote, asking for permission to file a motion in support of recusal.
Responding in a filing Tuesday, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that the defense request for Merchan’s recusal was factually flawed, failed to provide new information, and should be immediately denied.
“There is simply nothing new here that would alter this Court’s prior conclusion that nothing about this proceeding will directly benefit Authentic or this Court’s family member, let alone this Court,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said.
Trump’s lawyers made a similar effort to have Merchan recused from the case last year based on $35 in political contributions he made to Democrats in 2020 — including a $15 donation to Joe Biden — as well as his role overseeing the 2022 Trump Organization trial, and his daughter’s work as a political consultant.
Merchan declined to recuse himself in an August 2023 ruling, writing that “this Court has examined its conscience and is certain in its ability to be fair and impartial.”
“Defendant has failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds. The speculative and hypothetical scenarios offered by Defendant fall well short of the legal standard,” Merchan said about the allegations related to his daughter’s work.
Merchan relied on a May 2023 opinion issued by New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which determined that his “impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned” based on his daughter’s work.
“We see nothing in the inquiry to suggest that the outcome of the case could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business, or any of their interests,” the committee found.
In their letter Monday, Trump’s lawyers argued that the circumstances of the trial have changed since Merchan’s August 2023 decision not to recuse himself.
“The scenarios identified by the defense have come to pass. President Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election,” the filing said before highlighting the role of Merchan’s daughter as a political consultant.
Loren Merchan has served as a partner at Authentic Campaigns, which has worked for numerous Democratic clients on digital ad placement, fundraising list acquisition and other digital consulting, according to records reviewed by ABC News. The firm’s past and current clients include President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, pro-Democrat super PAC Senate Majority PAC (SMP) and Rep. Adam Schiff’s current Senate and past House campaigns.
Authentic Campaigns has been paid nearly $12 million so far in the 2023/2024 election cycle. The firm was paid $1.7 million by SMP last year and $2.1 million and $7.6 million, respectively, by the Biden campaign and the Harris campaign during the 2020 election, Federal Election Commission disclosure reports show.
“[There] is strong evidence that Authentic has used this case to make money. Those benefits and the ongoing financial interest cannot be ignored,” Blanche argued, suggesting that Merchan’s daughter would “continue to earn money” because developments in Trump’s criminal trial create “fodder for fundraising.”
In their response filed Tuesday, prosecutors disputed the defense’s allegations about the financial conflict between Merchan and his daughter, writing that there are “multiple attenuated factual leaps here that undercut any direct connection between Authentic and this case.”
“This daisy chain of innuendos is a far cry from evidence that this Court has ‘a direct, personal, substantial or pecuniary interest in reaching a particular conclusion,'” the filing said.
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.
Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to get underway April 15 in New York City.
(NEW YORK) — A line of severe thunderstorms is expected to bring damaging winds and a threat of dangerous tornadoes to the Ohio Valley.
Many schools across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana announced closures or early dismissals Tuesday ahead of the storms.
Intense, long-track tornadoes are in the forecast into Tuesday evening for Ohio to Kentucky, including the cities of Cincinnati and Louisville.
Tornado watches are in effect from northeastern Mississippi to southern Ohio. There have been numerous reports of flash flooding in eastern Ohio on Tuesday.
“Ohio really has a bull’s-eye directly on us,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters earlier Tuesday. “It’s a very, very serious situation. … People just need to be very, very careful.”
On Tuesday night, a tornado watch was extended to include Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon, saying there are “reports of substantial damage to a number of structures.” He added officials are not aware of any fatalities.
Severe thunderstorms — including tornadoes and powerful wind gusts — are possible for a large swath of the country, from Columbus, Ohio; to Charleston, West Virginia; to Nashville, Tennessee; to Birmingham, Alabama; to Columbus, Georgia.
In West Virginia, power has been knocked out to more than 130,000 customers.
CHECK THIS OUT! A lightning strike hit a transformer in Mt. Juliet and Candi caught it on camera! Stay safe this afternoon friends! More storms are starting to fire up as we speak! @WKRNpic.twitter.com/fuf3H7t0yM
From Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon, at least nine tornadoes were reported across four states: three in Oklahoma, three in Kentucky, one in Missouri, one in Indiana and one in Illinois.
Meanwhile, flood watches are in effect from Indiana to New Jersey, with cities including Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia expected to be hit the hardest.
Two to 3 inches of rain has already inundated Pittsburgh, where a flash flood warning is in effect.
(NAPLES, Fla.) — An alleged space object has appeared to crash through the roof of a family home in Naples, Florida, leaving several questions and a damaged residence in its wake.
Last month, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, took to X, to share that an “equipment pallet” from space had reentered Earth’s atmosphere, hypothesizing it would likely have reached Fort Myers, Florida.
“The EP-9 equipment pallet reentered at 1929 UTC over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba. This was with the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the ‘most likely’ part of the path. A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers,” McDowell wrote on March 8.
Alejandro Otero, a homeowner in Naples, Florida – about 40 miles south of Fort Myers – responded to McDowell on X and shared several photos of damage to his home, as well as a photo of the alleged space debris.
“Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples,” Otero wrote on March 15.
Otero said the apparent space object “tore through the roof” and went through two floors of his home, and that the object “almost hit my son.”
Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples. Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son. Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response. pic.twitter.com/Yi29f3EwyV
Otero previously claimed he had reached out to NASA for a response but did not hear back. In a statement Tuesday, NASA said the agency “collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin,” adding, “More information will be available once the analysis is complete.”
In an interview with WINK TV in Ft. Myers, Otero said he was on vacation when the incident took place but that his son was home and called him about the damage, saying, “Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling.”
“When we heard that, we were like, impossible, and then immediately I thought a meteorite,” Otero told WINK.
Otero said the object weighs nearly two pounds and appears to be “cylindrical-shaped.”
“It used to have a cylindrical shape, and you can tell by the shape of the top that it traveled in this direction through the atmosphere. Whatever you burned, created in this burn and melted the metal over in this direction,” Otero told WINK.
Upon arrival to his home, Otero said he was “shaking” and that he’s “super grateful that nobody got hurt.”
“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief,” Otero told WINK. “What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage?” he said, adding, “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”
(NEW YORK) — “Eclipse Across America” will air live Monday, April 8, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, ABC News Live, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Disney+ and Hulu as well as network social media platforms.
In the days leading up to the historic total solar eclipse on April 8, skywatchers are flocking near and far to the 115-mile-wide path of totality.
The track of the moon’s shadow across Earth’s surface, dubbed the path of totality, will stretch from Mexico, through the United States and into parts of Canada giving millions of eclipse chasers the chance to experience the celestial event.
However, due to geographic weather projections along the wide ranging path, some locations may not experience totality on eclipse day.
In the U.S., the path of totality begins in Texas and will travel through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse, according to NASA.
The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) created a U.S. Climate Normals-based interactive map to show the average heat index, temperature, dewpoint, wind chill and obscuration levels across the path of totality in the U.S.
At this point, it is too early to know if specific town or location will be covered in clouds, but it is not too early to see how the general pattern is setting up.
As of Tuesday, most long term models point to unsettled weather, mostly cloudy maybe even rain and thunderstorms for Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio have a 50/50 shot of seeing clouds and showers, forecasts show.
The Northeast, from western Pennsylvania into Maine, have the best shot at seeing clear skies and limited cloud cover.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth and, for a short time, completely blocks the face of the sun, according to NASA.
Average cloud coverage on April 8, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):
Dallas, Texas: 54% mostly cloudy or overcast, 46% clear to partly cloudy skies
Little Rock, Arkansas: 51% mostly cloudy or overcast, 49% clear to partly cloudy skies
Indianapolis, Indiana: 66% mostly cloudy or overcast, 34% clear to partly cloudy skies
Buffalo, New York: 67% mostly cloudy or overcast, 33% clear to partly cloudy skies
“You want to avoid any type of cloud, if you can,” Fred Espenak, a former astrophysicist from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and author of “Road Atlas for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2024,” told ABC News of eclipse day.
“Let’s say it’s on a sunny day with some puffy cumulus clouds around. All you need is for one of those clouds to be in front of the sun and you’ve missed the total eclipse,” he continued, adding, “So, you’re really looking for a place with as few clouds as possible.”
“I think seeing a total eclipse is something that should be on everybody’s bucket list and this April is just a golden opportunity,” Espenak said, noting that eclipse viewing is not just for scientists and astronomers, but for everyone.
“It’s an incredible event that will be something that people will remember for their entire lives,” Espenak continued. They’ll be telling their grandchildren about the total eclipse they saw in April of 2024, if they managed to get into the path of totality and have some good weather.”
“So I wish everybody fair skies next April,” Espenak said.
ABC News will continue to update with daily forecasts leading up to eclipse day on April 8.
(NEW YORK) — Across the country, medical experts and families in mourning are sounding the alarm over a substance that’s become known as “gas station heroin,” for how easy it is to find in most states.
Tianeptine has been marketed under different brands, with some claiming it brings “happiness in a bottle.” It can easily be found online, in convenience stores and even gas stations.
“Tianeptine is used as an antidepressant in other countries. However, the more we learned about it, it turns out that it hits the same receptors that opiates hit,” Dr. William Rushton, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who is the director of the Office of Medical Toxicology, told ABC News.
Tianeptine acts like two medications; an antidepressant and an opioid.
The drug, however, has become a major health issue across the country as its opioid-like effects have led to users being addicted, according to medical experts.
Activists and medical experts have also warned of serious health risks with taking the pills.
Five years ago, Johnathon Morrison, a 19-year-old college student from Alabama, suffered a very bad migraine and went to a local gas station looking for a remedy, according to his mother, Kristi Terry. A store employee allegedly recommended tianeptine, and over the course of the night he took 12 pills, she told ABC News.
The bottle suggests taking two pills a day and not to exceed three per week.
Terry said she found her son in bed unresponsive and later he was declared dead.
“I knew that he took the pills for a headache. I had no idea that they would have took his life,” she said.
Morrison’s autopsy report showed he choked on his own vomit and he had his prescription medication for preventing migraines and seizures in his system, as well as a high level of tianeptine.
The medical examiner wrote that while there was no way of knowing what actually killed Morrison, but he’d seen a similar amount of tianeptine in someone’s system before The person also died, according to the report.
The incident is not isolated, according to health data.
Poison control center cases involving tianeptine exposure jumped from 11 total cases between 2000 and 2013 to 151 cases in 2020 alone, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Three years ago, Alabama banned the sale of tianeptine, but products were still being sold in nearby Mississippi at the time.
Hanna Gilliam told ABC News that she would drive for hours from Alabama to Mississippi to purchase the drug and at one point was spending $350 a week on it.
“When I started doing them, I was like, there’s no way that they’re this bad for you if they’re selling them over the counter,” she said.
Gilliam, who said she battled addiction to heroin and painkillers, eventually stopped taking tianeptine but said the withdrawal symptoms made her recovery tough.
“I didn’t think that I would live to see 21,” she said. “I was either going to stay in active addiction until I died, or not be alive for my 21st.”
Gilliam is now nearly two years sober and studying nursing.
Tracy Harper Morrison said her son, Christopher Harper Montgomery, and daughter also faced uphill battles in fighting their addictions to the drug. It was toughest on Christopher.
Morrison said she, his friends and others tried to help fight his addiction but he still struggled with cravings.
In February 2023, she found her son dead inside his apartment.
A toxicology report found tianeptine in his system.
“When we went back and picked up Christopher’s ashes, I stopped by the store where he bought it, and I asked him [the store clerk] if he recognized Christopher because I had his picture. He said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ I said he bought some of this stuff’ and pointed to the tianeptine … ‘Yeah,’ [he said.] I said, ‘He’s dead,'” Morrison said.
A couple of months after Montgomery’s death, Mississippi banned tianeptine, joining Alabama and seven other states.
ABC News reached out to some tianeptine manufacturers for comment, but none wanted to be identified out of fear of retaliation. In statements, the business owners claimed their products were safe.
But Morrison and other family members of people who battled tianeptine addiction said that more states and the federal government need to take action.
Tianeptine products can still be purchased online.
A bipartisan group of five House of Representatives members sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to see if tianeptine should be reclassified under the Controlled Substances Act.
When asked by ABC News if the FDA plans to toughen regulation toward tianeptine or kratom, a similar product widely sold, the agency said in a statement, “We have issued warning letters to companies unlawfully marketing kratom and tianeptine products as dietary supplements and drugs.
“We will continue to collaborate with federal partners to engage proactively in meaningful research to advance science-based regulatory decision-making,” the FDA added.
Terry said she hopes that some action is done fast to prevent any more deaths.
“I don’t want any other mother to go through what I’m going through, because it’s a pain like nothing else,” she said.
(ATLANTA) — The man who allegedly crashed his SUV into the security gate at the FBI’s Atlanta Field Division building is facing a federal charge of destruction of government property, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta.
The suspect, Ervin Lee Bolling, apparently drove his car behind an authorized vehicle as it was entering the gate Monday afternoon. The pop-up barrier was deployed to stop Bolling’s unauthorized car, officials said.
Bolling exited his car and “attempted to follow an FBI employee into the secure parking lot by walking past the gate,” according to the federal criminal complaint.
Bolling allegedly resisted efforts by FBI agents to bring him into custody, prosecutors said. He was taken to a local hospital for medical and evaluation where he remained overnight, officials said.
No injuries were reported, FBI officials said.
Bolling also faces a local charge of interference with government property, according to DeKalb County police.
The Atlanta FBI office is located outside of Atlanta in Chamblee, Georgia.
