(LOS ANGELES) — Police in Beverly Hills said they arrested a man who allegedly made antisemitic remarks as he assaulted an older man with a belt on Saturday.
Jarris Jay Silagi, 44, allegedly struck an elderly man on his head with a belt at about 9 a.m. Saturday near North Rexford Drive and North Santa Monica Boulevard, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The suspect allegedly shouted antisemitic statements at the man, who was with his spouse, during the incident, the police said in a news release Sunday night.
The Beverly Hills Fire Department treated the older man at the scene. He did not require additional medical attention at the time, police said.
The suspect left the scene and was later located by a BHPD senior forensic specialist, who spotted a man matching a description that had been circulated, police said.
“Our officers quickly apprehended the suspect and he is in custody,” Police Chief Mark Stainbrook said in a statement. “This despicable act of hate against a member of our community will not be tolerated.”
Silagi has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, “attempt robbery,” hate crime and elder abuse. He is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail on $100,000 bail. He is expected at the Los Angeles Airport Court on Dec. 12. It wasn’t immediately clear if Silagi had an attorney.
Saturday’s alleged assault is the latest in a string of incidents since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the succeeding war.
A 69-year-old Jewish man died last month from blunt-force head trauma following a confrontation with a counterprotester as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Thousand Oaks, California, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said last month.
An antisemitic message was sprayed on the back of a holocaust survivor’s apartment building in Beverly Hills in late October, police said.
Earlier in October, police began an investigation after antisemitic flyers were distributed in Beverly Hills.
ABC News’ Michelle Mendez contributed to this report.
As newly filed court documents reveal horrific details in a multi-city Texas shooting rampage that left six people dead last week and a former U.S. Army officer under arrest on capital murder charges, a husband whose wife was among the victims said she died a “hero” saving their 18-month-old son.
Ishraq Islam described his wife, 24-year-old Sabrina Rahman, as an “angel,” saying she was killed while out for a walk with their son in their Austin neighborhood on Tuesday morning, a day after they moved into their new home.
Islam told Austin ABC affiliate KVUE that his wife witnessed the suspect, Shane James, gun down 32-year-old Emmanuel Pop Ba, a handyman who was helping them move into their new home, before she started to run from the assailant while pushing her baby’s stroller.
“She screamed. She went the opposite way. The gunman followed her, approached her. She threw my baby — she threw the stroller to the side towards the home. She saved his life. The gunman shot her, and he took off,” Islam said. “She got hit in the head, she collapsed. She’s a hero. She saved my son.”
Islam said his family has been “cut into a million pieces” by his wife’s killing, but added he plans to stay strong for their child.
“We’re going to show him how heroic his mom was and [how] she put her life, put everything on the line to save him,” Islam told KVUE. “And we’re going to make sure he has an amazing life.”
He said he, his wife and son moved to Austin about a year ago from Vancouver, British Columbia.
“We built two houses here and were ready to start our new lives in a good neighborhood,” Islam said. “It’s only been a year, and we came here for a fresh start. And then this happens.”
James, 34, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with capital murder following an hours-long shooting spree that authorities allege started in Bexar County, near San Antonio, where police found the bodies of his parents, 56-year-old Shane James Sr. and 55-year-old Phyllis James, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
Salazar said investigators believe the parents were killed sometime between 10 p.m. on Dec. 4 and 9 a.m. on Dec. 5 in the home where their son lived with them.
The suspect then drove about 80 miles to Austin, where he allegedly continued the rampage at about 10:43 a.m. local time Tuesday, shooting a school resource officer in the leg near Northeast Early College High School, according to the Austin Police Department.
New details emerge in criminal affidavit
A criminal affidavit filed in the case on Saturday alleged James then drove to south Austin, where he killed Rahman and Ba at about 11:59 a.m. Tuesday.
About five hours later, James resurfaced, allegedly targeting a 39-year-old cyclist, who suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to police.
Then just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, a homeowner on Austral Loop in Austin called 911 to report he was viewing a live feed of his home surveillance camera and saw a man breaking into his home, according to the new affidavit filed in the case. The homeowner told police his wife and special needs daughter were inside the house at the time, the affidavit states.
An Austin police detective, who was working as a uniformed patrol officer due to a staffing shortage, responded to the Austral Loop address and confronted the suspect in the backyard, according to the affidavit.
“The APD Detective ran to the back of the residence and the suspect began to shoot at the APD Detective. The APD Detective was struck multiple times by the suspect’s gunfire,” the affidavit alleges.
After shooting the detective, the suspect, later identified as James, allegedly stole a blue 2015 Acrua from the garage of the home and led police on a chase with speeds hitting 90 mph before the alleged perpetrator lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a car, according to the affidavit. Once James was taken into custody, officers found a .45 caliber handgun in James’ waistband and two ammunition magazines in his pocket, the affidavit alleges.
When police searched the Austral Loop home, they discovered 56-year-old Katherine Short and her 30-year-old daughter, Lauren Short, both suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the affidavit. Officers immediately rendered first aid, but both the mother and daughter were pronounced dead at the scene, the affidavit states.
A day after his arrest, James attempted to escape from the Travis County Jail, and deputies had to use force to subdue him, according to the affidavit. Details of the attempted escape were not disclosed.
“Based on the information obtained over the course of these investigations, we strongly believe one suspect is responsible for all of the incidents,” Interim Austin Police Chief Robin Henderson said at a news conference last week.
Salazar said his deputies in Bexar County had several encounters with James, including a Jan. 6, 2022, arrest on three misdemeanor counts stemming from an alleged assault on his parents and a sibling. Salazar said the James family did not believe he belonged in jail at the time and told authorities he suffered from mental health issues.
As part of James’ release from jail in 2022, he was required to wear an ankle monitoring device, according to Salazar. He said a day after James was released from jail, he cut off his ankle monitoring device, prompting misdemeanor warrants to be issued for his arrest.
Salazar said the last time deputies had contact with James was in August 2022 when his father asked deputies to intervene, claiming his “son was naked, he was acting out, had a mental health episode and was upstairs in his bedroom.”
The sheriff said deputies tried to talk James into coming out of his room but were limited by law in what they could do because James was only wanted at the time on misdemeanor warrants. Deputies left the house without arresting James and asked the father to call them when he came out of the bedroom, but deputies never got a callback, Salazar said.
Army spokesman Bryce Dubee confirmed to ABC News that James served as an infantry officer from February 2013 to August 2015. His records, according to Dubee, showed James had no deployments and separated from the service on Aug. 17, 2015, with the rank of first lieutenant.
The storm system that brought deadly tornadoes to the South is now moving east, bringing threats of rain and hail with it.
A tornado watch remained in effect for millions of people in parts of Alabama, Georgia and the Florida panhandle on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service, after six people were killed and dozens more injured from tornadoes that touched down in Tennessee on Saturday.
As this line of storms continues to push east, they have a likelihood to remain strong to severe in strength, as well, forecasts show. The chance for tornadoes and damaging wind will continue to spread toward the East Coast on Sunday.
An observed tornado passed through the southern suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, around 12:45 p.m. ET, just before a tornado watch in the region expired at 1 p.m.
Severe weather threats will continue throughout Sunday into parts of the Carolinas.
The areas with a slightly higher risk of seeing the strongest storms include Wilmington and Greenville in North Carolina. Places like Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baltimore and Washington, D.C., will also have the chance of strong storms.
In addition, more than 50 million people from Virginia to Maine will be under flood watch due to torrential downpours. Some of the areas in upper New England, mainly New Hampshire and Maine, that have seen significant snowfall the last couple of weeks will be seeing warm rain Sunday that will melt some of that snow and add to the flood threat, forecasts show.
The 1 p.m. ET NFL game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium is expected to be rain-soaked with some lightning, as well.
By 5 p.m. Sunday, storms will be over Jacksonville, Tampa and up the Georgia coast into South Carolina, forecasts show.
The flood threat will be greatest Sunday evening and overnight, as torrential rain pours across the I-95 corridor. Significant ponding on roads is likely, and winds will be gusting up to 50 mph, causing terrible driving conditions all night.
Flooding is especially possible from the New York City area through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and into Maine.
By 7 a.m. Monday, heavy rain will be moving through the East Coast from Atlanta to Boston and Maine. Snow is expected to fall on the backside of this system, through much of upstate New York and Vermont, as well as Pennsylvania. Up to 18 inches of accumulation is possible along the Canadian border.
The system will be out by 7 p.m. Monday and will only have lingering lake-effect snow from the northwesterly winds, forecasts show.
On Saturday, there were at least 21 tornadoes reported in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, several of which were large, powerful and extremely destructive.
Six people died and at least 36 others were injured Saturday as a result of tornadoes in Tennessee, according to officials.
The National Weather Service will conduct surveys in the coming days to determine the strength, size, path and rating of the tornadoes.
A suspect has been arrested in the slaying of Texas high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina, whose body was discovered in the bathtub of her home by her mother on Tuesday, according to authorities.
The suspect, identified as 23-year-old Rafael Govea Romero, was arrested Saturday and was jailed on suspicion of capital murder in the killing of the 16-year-old victim, according to police.
The Texas Rangers and Edna police placed Romero under arrest in Schulenburg, about 75 miles north of Edna, and he was taken to the Jackson County Jail, Edna Police Chief Rick Boone said in a statement Sunday announcing the arrest. Details of the arrest were not immediately disclosed.
Medina was supposed to perform with her cheerleading squad at a Christmas parade in Edna on Tuesday, her mother, Jacqueline Medina, told Houston ABC station KTRK.
But when the teen never showed up, her mother said she went searching for her and ultimately found her unresponsive at their apartment.
Romero’s capture came a day after the Edna Police Department announced it was searching for a person and vehicle of interest in Medina’s homicide. Romero’s arrest also occurred while classmates and community residents of Edna held a candlelight vigil for Medina Saturday evening at a gazebo outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Edna.
“Although Romero is apprehended, we recognize Lizabeth’s family and friends are grieving and still need support from the community,” Boone said. “The citizens of Edna can now sleep in peace.”
Before Romero’s arrest, Edna police on Saturday released photos of a person and vehicle of interest in connection with the case.
The male person of interest was described by police as possibly having a tattoo behind his right ear and was seen in the images wearing a black Volcom hooded sweatshirt. The person of interest was also seen driving a silver Ford Taurus, model year ranging from 2010 to 2018, police had said.
Police have not said if there was any previous relationship between Medina and Romero, or if the attack was a random incident.
Police have released few details on the circumstances of Medina’s death. An autopsy report has yet to be released.
Jacqueline Medina said she and her family moved to Edna, about 25 miles northeast of Victoria in southeast Texas, last year.
She said her daughter was honored before her school’s football game Thursday night, where the distraught cheerleading squad and her family wore purple — the teen’s favorite color.
“My head is just spinning everywhere, and I just want answers, I want justice,” Jacqueline Medina told KTRK prior to the game.
She said her daughter had a “kind heart” and would give someone the shirt off her back.
“You took an angel from me, and not only from me, from a lot of people who loved her,” Jacqueline Medina said.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill has voluntarily resigned, the institution said on Saturday, following backlash over her comments during a congressional hearing on how she said she would handle remarks in the university community calling for the “genocide of Jews.”
“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution,” Magill said in a statement shared by the university. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MAUI) — For some Maui wildfire victims, the holiday season has been rough, with many residents still displaced from their homes.
But the community has found a way to band together and deliver some kokua, the Hawaiian word for help, in various ways. They’re also receiving kokua from all over the world.
Sarah Verrastro, who has been living in a hotel with her 6-year-old son Myles after the devastating wildfires destroyed their Lahaina home and school, says she and her family have been struggling to get into the holiday spirit.
“Santa is really magical and smart, and he’s going to know exactly where you are on Christmas. You don’t have to worry about that,” she recalls telling her son.
Still, Verrastro told ABC News Live that she is mindful of the gifts she has received from helping hands, whether it be donated clothes or financial help from multimillion-dollar charity funds like The People’s Fund, started by Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“They’re giving $1,200 a month, and no, that doesn’t cover anybody’s rental payment by any extent. For us, that’s our rebuild,” she said.
There have also been direct payments from nonprofit organizations including the United Way and Maui Economic Opportunity, funded in part by Hawai’i Community Foundation which is the largest private recipient of donations, according to Micah Kane, CEO and President of Hawai’i Community Foundation. Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott donated $5 million this week and the Hawai’i Community Foundation says they have raised $163 million as of Dec. 1.
Kane said that the foundation has used $35 million of the funds raised this year toward funding grants for providing direct financial assistance, shelter, grief counseling, and more.
They intend to disburse funds in phases.
“We know that federal funding and state funding will start to dry up,” Kane said.
The remaining $125 million will be used over the next few years in a recovery and stabilization mode.
“We want to stabilize people’s lives in a way where they can thrive for the next two to three, maybe even four years as their community gets re-envisioned,” Kane said.
But some displaced residents, like Nicole Ellison and her mother Monica, have had a tough time getting assistance.
The mother and daughter say they were in transitional housing waiting to move into a new rental when the fires hit and destroyed the shelter. They say they have moved seven times since then, and since their address doesn’t match their government IDs, they say they have run into bureaucratic red tape in trying to get assistance
“Me and my family have moved seven times…in the past three and a half months,” Nicole Ellison told ABC News Live.
Nicole Ellison and her mom told ABC News Live their finances are now tight.
“I wish we could postpone Christmas just for a little while. It just makes me sad,” Monica Ellison said with tears.
Things began to turn around after the nonprofit Project Vision Hawaii was able to help the Ellisons with financial aid for a one-year lease on a home.
“So they will be paying for our rent from six months to a year,” Nicole Ellison said.
Holiday kokua has come in other forms.
Linda Higgins, an ICU nurse from San Jose, California, said she wanted to help out Maui residents after seeing the devastation, and as a self-described “Christmas nut,” she told ABC News Live that she had a fun idea.
“I just realized they lost all their stockings and they needed something to bring a smile,” Higgins said of the younger displaced residents.
She got to work sewing and stuffing, rallying friends and neighbors to help so that every child in Lahaina would have a Christmas stocking.
More than 900 stockings have been transported to the island with the help of Southwest Airlines, and have been distributed to students at Sacred Hearts School, which was destroyed in the Lahaina fire. Stockings will also be distributed to Lahaina public school students.
And as this island tries to heal emotionally, another source of help comes from something from the heart of Hawaiian culture: music.
Friends Ikaiaka Blackburn, a Maui Fire County Department captain, and Marvin Tevaga, a Maui Police Officer and father of five who lost his home in the fires, took part in a special musical performance for ABC News Live.
Blackburn says he texted Tevaga after the fire to say “Sorry.”
“He’s my brother,” Blackburn said.
Tevaga said the Puamana songs, traditional Maui hula songs, are the ones that make him hopeful about the recovery.
“My grandma is buried there and I thought about the times when I was a kid — my grandma would take me down there and we would pick plumeria,” he said.
Blackburn said the community will continue to stand together as they navigate this tragedy
“Kokua means to support. Kokua means to back up, to take care of,” he said.
ABC News’ Emily Lippiello, Becky Worley, and Derick Yanehiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A flood watch affecting more than 56 million Americans has been issued across 12 states, as a storm system is expected to bring severe weather to the East Coast on Sunday and Monday.
The flood watch is in effect from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, beginning Sunday afternoon and continuing into Monday afternoon. This includes D.C.; Baltimore; Philadelphia; New York City; Albany, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; Burlington, Vermont; and Portland, Maine.
Rainfall totals could reach 2 to 4 inches, with some rainfall rates of half an inch per hour possible. If this moderate rainfall rate lasts over one area too long it could lead to quick runoff and urban flash flooding.
There’s a “slight risk” of excessive rainfall leading to flash flooding for parts of the coastal Northeast on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
The rain is forecast to hit from the Florida panhandle up to near D.C. around 7 a.m. Sunday. By Sunday evening, moderate to heavy rainfall is expected to fall along the I-95 corridor.
High winds are also expected for coastal Long Island into New England later on Sunday, with wind gusts up to 60 mph possible. All of Long Island, Cape Cod and coastal Maine are under a high wind watch.
Travel from Sunday night into Monday morning is not recommended, when the heaviest rain is expected.
The NYC Emergency Management Department has issued a travel advisory for Sunday and Monday due to the potential for flooding rain and strong gusty winds.
By 7 a.m. Monday, most of the heavy rain is expected to be north of New York City and starting to exit Boston.
Heavy wet snow is also possible in upstate New York and Vermont through the afternoon. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 10 inches, with up to 15 inches locally, are possible.
Elsewhere, a moderate to strong atmospheric river is forecast to bring another period of steady rain to the Northwest late Saturday into Sunday. The most likely scenario calls for 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain falling along the immediate coast, and up to 3 to 4 inches of rain falling across the north Oregon Coast Range.
In the South, severe thunderstorms capable of producing a few tornadoes, scattered damaging winds and large hail are possible Saturday afternoon and evening, from Louisiana to Kentucky.
A tornado watch is in effect until 7 p.m. CT for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.
A confirmed powerful tornado moved through northwest Tennessee Saturday afternoon. Early damage reports are coming in from Dresden and Rutherford.
This line of storms has the potential to spawn more tornadoes, as well as large hail and damaging winds, into the evening.
(LAS VEGAS) — When gunfire erupted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a woman hiding alone under an office desk called 911 in tears.
“Someone’s shooting inside the office,” she said. “Please hurry.”
The operator asked her how long ago she heard the shots, and she responded, “They’re happening right now.”
The operator asked if anyone else was with her, and she replied, “It’s just me. My boss is working from home.”
Newly released 911 calls provide a heartbreaking look inside the chaos on campus during Wednesday’s mass shooting in which killed three faculty members were killed and and one faculty member was injured.
The suspected gunman, Anthony Polito, who was armed with a legally purchased handgun, died at the scene following a firefight with responding officers about 10 minutes after shots were first reported at UNLV’s Beam Hall.
The officers were identified on Friday as Det. Nathaniel Drum, who has been employed with the University Police services since 2017, and officer Damien Garcia, who has been on the force since 2018.
Per department policy, both officers have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into the shooting, according to Adam Garcia, police chief for the University Police Services Southern Command.
“These two officers are heroes,” Garcia said during a press briefing on Friday. “They kept the worst from becoming a bloodbath.”
A second 911 caller said, “I was getting off the elevator. I heard shots fired and screaming and I ran … Lots of students are running out … Two officers ran into the building and I ran out of the building.”
Scared parents also called 911 reporting that their children were hiding in classrooms.
One mom said her daughter could hear the gunshots. While the mom was on the phone with 911, she got a text from her daughter saying, “Mom, I’m scared.”
The operator said the mother should tell her daughter “to stay calm — and tell her do not open that door unless she hears them yelling. They will announce, ‘Metro police.'”
The investigation is ongoing.
Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV but was not hired, according to sources.
Police said Polito had a list of people “he was seeking” at UNLV, but none of the individuals on the target list were victims in the shooting.
Authorities believe Polito spent a few minutes looking for people on the list, but was unsuccessful in finding them and then shot other victims who happened to be in the building, a law enforcement source told ABC News.
ABC News’ Vanessa Navarrete and Cory Peeler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Four hours of tense testimony on Capitol Hill this week with presidents of the nation’s most elite colleges has kicked off a flood of anger from donors, alumni and politicians — but it’s also reignited simmering tensions for students.
College campuses, often the heart of debate in the U.S., have been a central point of protest and dialogue on the Israel-Hamas war for the past two months — a role that also has brought tension, discomfort and pain, Jewish and Palestinian students said in interviews.
Where they do agree is that they broadly don’t feel supported by their school administrations, something the hearing underscored, they said.
“We are concerned that they’re not addressing [antisemitism or Islamophobia] because they’re so afraid and they’re so paralyzed by not upsetting people,” said Talia Khan, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the MIT Israel Alliance. “And that’s the problem is that there’s no student on campus who’s happy — Jewish students aren’t happy, Muslim students aren’t happy.”
The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the MIT were grilled for hours by the House Education Committee earlier this week. The leaders repeatedly condemned antisemitism, vowing to do more to combat it.
But it was a line of questioning from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik quizzing them on how they would respond to calls for the “genocide of Jews,” that drew the most attention.
Stefanik’s question was about chants of “intifada,” the Arab word for “shaking off” or “uprising,” at protests on campuses.
“Does that speech not cross that barrier, does that speech not call for the genocide of Jews and the elimination of Israel?” she asked. “Is that speech according to the code of conduct or not?”
“We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even views that are objectionable,” said Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University.
Asked the same question, Elizabeth Magill, president of Penn, said “it is a context-dependent decision.” Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, said it would be investigated as harassment, “if pervasive and severe.”
The presidents refused to give a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Instead, they gave carefully worded responses touching on the tricky issue of free speech.
The viral moment sparked condemnations from donors, governors and senators, as well as calls for the leaders to step down.
Amid the firestorm of backlash, the presidents of Harvard and Penn issued follow-up statements to clarify and walk back their testimonies.
Khan, the student at MIT, said the testimony underscored the university’s failure to protect students.
“We’re here to study. I’m here to do a PhD in mechanical engineering,” Khan said. “I want them to do something to make us feel safe.”
This was echoed by a Penn students who spoke at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier this week.
“As a student, I do not feel safe,” Penn student Eyal Yakoby said.
Others at the press conference, such as Jonathan Frieden, a Harvard Law student, pleaded for protection.
“Do something,” Frieden said. “Protect Jewish people. Protect your students.”
It comes as Penn and Harvard — as well as a growing list of nearly 20 school districts and universities since the war began — are under investigation for complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia on campus, both of which have risen at alarming levels.
But Palestinian students at Harvard say that while their schools are attempting to address antisemitism with task forces — even discussing it on Capitol Hill — Islamophobia has been treated with far less gravity.
Students say the fears are growing, particularly after three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously injured in Vermont last month.
“We have nothing equivalent for Palestinian, Arab, Muslim students or supporters of Palestine to address or combat the very obvious, very public, very targeted harassment campaigns that we’ve been facing,” said Tala Alfoqaha, a Palestinian-American law student at Harvard.
After at least 30 student groups released a letter, in part, blaming the Israeli regime for “all unfolding violence” in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, they have faced public outrage and harassment including doxxing. Several groups have since retracted their signatures and the authors later released a statement clarifying that they do not condone violence against civilians.
“Our statement’s purpose was clear: to address the root cause of all the violence unfolding. To state what should be clear: PSC staunchly opposes all violence against all innocent life and laments all human suffering,” the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee said in a subsequent statement released.
Alfoqaha said her name and face have been broadcast on a truck with a billboard on it that drives around campus, doxxing pro-Palestinian students, and a website has been put up in her name, which has led to professional consequences.
“It feels like we are being collectively gaslit,” she said. “I feel like the institution’s response, our government’s response, the responses of our politicians that refuse to acknowledge Palestinians suffering continue to leave the Palestinian story as less than a footnote in their narrative of events.”
She said she watched the hearing with dismay.
“[Stefanik] is asking about, you know, these hypothetical genocides that Palestinians obviously do not support, when there is an actual genocide taking place against Palestinians,” she said.
More than 17,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, amid the Israeli offensive in response to Hamas’ the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials.
Lea Kayali, also a Palestinian-American student at Harvard Law School, says she, too, took issue with the line of questioning, which she says conflated protests for Palestinian freedom with antisemitism.
“To be honest, at this point, I have absolutely no faith that the Harvard administration is going to be using their platform to espouse the truth about what students on campus stand for when they say ‘free Palestine,'” she said.
“I have no hope that the administration is going to support us or even, you know, try to create space for us to live normally as students and express our outrage about a genocide.”
Gabriella Martini, a graduate student in a group called Jews for Ceasefire at MIT — a group of MIT students and alumni calling for a ceasefire and end of the occupation, according to its Instagram account — said she’s worried the doxxing that’s happening at Harvard could make its way down the road to MIT.
“The pattern of institutional support for students who are advocating for Palestine, and not just Jewish students, has been so subpar that I think we’re all struggling to fully trust that the institutions will come to our aid,” she said.
Martini, along with other students in Jews for Ceasefire, traveled to Capitol Hill for the hearing.
Watching it, they said their perspective on what is happening on college campuses across the country felt ignored. The national conversation has pitted Jewish students against Arab and Muslim students, even though there are a multitude of views, Martini said.
“I really reject the idea that advocating for the Palestinian people is inherently antisemitic,” Martini said.
There has been a lot of discomfort and pain on campus, she said, as people realize their views are “in tension” with one another.
Martini said she felt sympathetic to Israeli students on campus or people with friends and family in Israel “who feel like they’re really wrestling with grief after Oct. 7 and that it’s very painful to be in spaces where people are protesting on behalf of the Palestinian people, like they feel like their experience is not being acknowledged fully.”
(PONTIAC, Mich.) — Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for killing four of his classmates and wounding others in the 2021 Michigan school shooting.
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last year to 24 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death.
In handing out the sentence, Judge Kwamé Rowe emphasized the “extensive planning” of the school shooting and said Crumbley could have changed his mind at any point but didn’t.
“He continued to walk through the school, picking and choosing who was going to die,” Rowe said, calling the attack on the classmates an “execution” and “torture.”
Rowe previously ruled that the sentence of life without parole was appropriate despite Crumbley’s age at the time of the shooting.
Prosecutors had said there were no plea deals, reductions or agreements regarding sentencing. The charges of first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death both carried a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years.
Crumbley addressed the court in brief remarks on Friday ahead of sentencing and told the judge he wants the victims to be happy and asked Rowe to impose whatever sentence they asked for.
“I am a really bad person, I have done terrible things that no one should ever do,” he said.
Four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed when Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Six students and a teacher were wounded in the shooting rampage.
The families of victims and survivors of the shooting provided emotional impact statements ahead of the sentencing on Friday. Parents recalled the agony of waiting to hear what happened to their children that day, only to then learn that they were killed.
In tears, Buck Myre, father of victim Tate Myre, remembered how his wife put her head in her hands and cried, “Not my baby boy,” and described the awful toll the shooting has taken on his family ever since.
“For the past two years, our family has been navigating our way through complete hell,” he said.
Addressing Crumbley, Buck Myre said: “I understand from journal entries, this was the desired outcome — for us to feel the pain that you had. I will tell you this: We are miserable. We miss Tate. Our family has a permanent hole in it that can never be fixed, ever.”
“As we fight and claw our way through this journey, we realize that we are completely miserable, and there does not appear to be a way out. So to this day, you were winning,” he continued. “But today is a day where the tides change. Today, we are going to take hours back. We’re all cried out. We’re all tired out. “
Buck Myre said that they are working to find a way to forgive Crumbley, his parents and the school.
“What other options do we have? Be miserable for the rest of our lives and rob our family of normalcy?” he said. “We want you to spend the rest of your life rotting in your cell. What you stole from us is not replaceable. But what we won’t let you steal from us is a life of normalcy and we’ll find a way to get there through forgiveness and through putting good into this world.”
Madisyn’s mother, Nicole Beausoleil, said she wanted her daughter to be remembered by her name — and not as a shooting victim.
“Madisyn lives in all of us. Her legacy remains. Her kindness continues, now and forever,” Beausoleil said. “She will always be the heartbeat of our family.”
She refused to say the shooter’s name, calling him “trash” and “waste,” and asked the judge to give him the same life sentence that she has received — one “that I cannot escape from.”
“Day by day passes, I hope his life seems more meaningless, lost and forgotten,” she said.
The father of Hana St. Juliana asked for life without parole for the shooter’s “heinous crime.”
“If it were your child who was killed in such a cowardly manner, would you be satisfied that justice was served with anything less than him spending the rest of his life in prison?” Steve St. Juliana asked the court.
In the wake of his daughter’s murder, he said he is a “shell of the person I used to be.”
“A few paragraphs of words describing Hana can in no way fully capture her truly beautiful, caring soul nor impart her unlimited potential,” he said. “Hana was an absolutely beautiful and thoughtful person.”
Craig Shilling spoke while wearing a sweatshirt adorned with a photo of his son, Justin Shilling.
“One could venture to say that there are no words that can accurately describe the pain that we feel on a daily basis,” he said. “I have PTSD and struggle most days even to get out of bed.”
He said he still finds himself waiting for his son to come home each day.
“Never in a million years did I think that something like this was going to happen to me,” he said. “There’s absolutely no way you can prepare yourself for this level of pain.”
He said he believes the punishment should be the death penalty, which is banned in Michigan. In lieu of that, he asked the judge to “lock this son of a bitch up for the rest of his pathetic life.”
“His blatant lack of human decency and disturbing thoughts on life in general do not in any way warrant a second chance,” he said. “My son doesn’t get a second chance and neither should he.”
Justin Shilling’s mother, Jill Soave, also asked the judge to sentence the shooter to life without the possibility of parole.
“Your Honor, it’s almost impossible to find the human words to describe my grief, pain, trauma and rage,” she said. “The manner in which my son Justin was so cold-heartedly, methodically executed shows clearly the pure evil and malice of the shooter.”
She recounted how her son spent his last moments protecting shooting survivor Keegan Gregory and saved six more lives through organ donation.
“His future was so bright and full of possibilities,” she said. “He will always be my little sweetheart.”
Keegan Gregory told the court about the moments he and Justin Shilling were trapped in a bathroom with the shooter.
“We were stuck, helpless and cornered with no defense,” he said. “It was and always will be the most terrifying moment of my life — being cornered with no option but to run out of the bathroom as fast as I could, hoping to live.”
He said he was in “absolute disbelief and shock” when Justin Shilling was shot, and continues to feel the guilt of surviving.
“I know that if it wasn’t Justin’s life that was taken, it could have been mine, and I’m forever grateful to him for that,” he said. “I almost feel guilty about being alive, knowing that Justin’s family is living in grief.”
“That guilt is now compounded with sadness, fear, anxiety and trauma,” he said, describing how he continues to deal with flashbacks, fear and paranoia and has trouble trusting people.
He asked for a sentence “that makes sure he won’t ever hurt anyone again,” though hoped that Crumbley receives counseling to understand the impact of his actions.
Nearly 30 victims addressed the court on Friday. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said more considered speaking but decided they were unable to, “which is further evidence of the trauma.”
McDonald urged the judge to “give them the justice they deserve” and sentence Crumbley to life without parole.
Deborah McKelvy, Crumbley’s court-appointed guardian, wanted to remind the court that the defendant was 15 at the time of the shooting and said he is not the same person that he was then.
“His life is salvageable, his life is rehabilitable,” McKelvy said while arguing that life without parole is not the appropriate sentence.
Amy Hopp, one of Crumbley’s defense attorneys, asked the judge to consider a term of years — which she said could potentially see him released by his late 70s — as opposed to life without parole.
“Even a term of years is a very, very lengthy sentence, and may very well be a life sentence. But what it does do is give Ethan the opportunity to demonstrate to everyone that he can be rehabilitated, that he is redeemable, that he can make amends and contribute in a positive way to society upon his release,” Hopp said.
Earlier this year, during a hearing to determine whether Crumbley could be eligible for life in prison without parole, Rowe highlighted evidence against the teen in which he displayed violence, including Crumbley saying he felt something “between good and pleasurable” when he tortured a baby bird.
“There is other disturbing evidence but it is clear to this court that the defendant had an obsession with violence before the shooting,” Rowe said.
Rowe questioned the possibility that Crumbley could be rehabilitated in jail.
“The evidence does not demonstrate to this court that he wants to change,” he said.
“The defendant continues to be obsessed with violence and could not stop his violence in jail,” Rowe added.
The teen’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting.
Both parents have pleaded not guilty and their trial is set to begin on Jan. 23.
During his plea hearing in October 2022, Crumbley admitted in court that he asked his father to buy him a specific gun and confirmed he gave his father money for the gun and that the semi-automatic handgun wasn’t kept in a locked safe.
Days before the shooting, a teacher allegedly saw Crumbley researching ammunition in class; school officials contacted his parents but they didn’t respond, according to prosecutors. His mother texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught,” according to prosecutors.
Hours before the shooting, according to prosecutors, a teacher saw a note on his desk that was “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
Crumbley’s parents were called to the school over the incident, saying they’d get their son counseling but did not take him home.
