(NEW YORK) — One person was killed and five others wounded in a shooting at a subway station in the Bronx Monday evening, police said.
Around 4:30 p.m. ET, officers responded to 911 calls of a shooting at the Mount Eden Avenue station and found six people shot, New York City Police Department Chief of Transit Michael M. Kemper told reporters at a media briefing Monday night.
The victims, four men and two women, whose ages ranged from 14 to 71, were all taken to local hospitals. One of the men, a 34-year-old, died at St. Barnabas Hospital, Kember said.
The injuries to the other victims were not life-threatening, according to the police.
Kember said the shooting was not random and started inside a No. 4 train when two groups got into a dispute.
As the train pulled into the station, one person took out a gun and opened fire, according to Kemper.
“This is unacceptable, and when detectives make an arrest … there must be swift, immediate, strong consequences,” Kemper said.
Some of the people shot were part of that initial dispute while others were not, Kemper said. No further information was made available about the victims at the briefing.
A suspect has not been identified, officials said.
The NYPD is going through surveillance footage and asking anyone who has information to call Crimestoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
(NEW YORK) — Inflation data to be released on Tuesday will show whether price increases resumed a monthslong slowdown in January.
The report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics follows a slight acceleration of price increases in December. That jump in inflation complicated the Federal Reserve’s plans to deescalate its inflation fight with a series of interest rate cuts this year.
Fewer than two weeks ago, the central bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged, opting to observe further economic performance before reversing a near-historic series of rate increases that began last year.
Economists expect Tuesday’s data to show prices have increased 2.9% over the year ending in January, which would mark a significant slowdown from the annual pace of 3.4% recorded over the previous month.
Core inflation — a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices — is expected to have increased 3.7% over the year ending in January, which would also amount to a cooldown from the prior month.
Inflation has fallen dramatically from a peak last year, but it remains more than a percentage point above the Fed’s target of 2%.
The U.S. economy has largely defied the central bank’s efforts to slow the economy by raising borrowing costs for households and businesses.
The economy far exceeded expectations by adding 353,000 jobs last month while holding the unemployment rate steady at 3.7%, a historically low figure, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month.
Gross domestic product performed much better than expected at the end of last year, a report this month showed, while consumer sentiment soared in January.
The blockbuster performance, however, could pose a challenge for the inflation fight taken up by policymakers at the Federal Reserve.
The Fed risks a rebound of inflation if it cuts interest rates too quickly, since stronger consumer demand could lead to an acceleration of price increases.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., late last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell celebrated the steady decline of inflation over recent months and welcomed the robust hiring occurring alongside it. However, he cautioned about the risks posed by an economy that runs too hot.
“We’re not looking for a weaker labor market,” Powell said. “We’re looking for inflation to continue to come down, as it has been coming down for the last six months.”
“We’re not declaring victory at this point,” he later added. “We think we have a ways to go.”
(NEW YORK) — Show a little love to the planet this Valentine’s Day by celebrating in more sustainable ways.
The holiday is actually quite carbon-intensive due to consumer behavior in the U.S., research shows. For Valentine’s Day, U.S. citizens buy about 36 million heart-shaped boxes, 180 million cards, 198 million roses, 881,000 bottles of sparkling wine and 58 million pounds of chocolate, according to Waste 360, an international waste management and strategy company.
Americans are projected to spend nearly $26 billion on Valentine’s Day this year, the National Retail Federation announced in January.
North America did not embrace Feb. 14 as a holiday en masse until Hallmark began specializing in Valentine’s Day cards in 1910, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Consumers can reduce their carbon footprint by making more eco-friendly choices for their Valentine’s Day revelry.
Here’s how to celebrate Valentine’s Day more sustainably, according to experts:
Buy a houseplant from a local nursery instead of flowers
Unlike a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers, a houseplant can last for years and be enjoyed for many holidays to come.
Purchasing a houseplant from a local nursery can support a local business and avoid additional shipping emissions associated with imported flowers and plants, Jodie Bross, owner of Glenwild Garden Center in Bloomingdale, New Jersey, told ABC News.
More than a billion flowers are imported into the U.S. — mostly from Ecuador and Colombia — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
According to the National Retail Federation, 39% of consumers will buy flowers for the holiday. However, most of them will end up in landfills after the holiday, contributing to the release of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases that is responsible for around 30% of the global temperature increase since the Industrial Revolution, scientists say.
Organic materials, including food waste, are responsible for the majority of fugitive methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition, chemical pollution from the cut-flower industry, which uses agrochemical extensively for the short-cycle production, has negative effects on the air, soil and water supply, according to the World Resources Institute. The amount of water used in production is also a concern, the WRI said.
“The sourcing for them can be a little bit problematic,” Bross said. “A lot of them come from South America, so there’s a lot of travel involved.”
Choose experiences over gifts
Valentine’s Day gifts can also be tickets to a Broadway show or concert.
In 2023, an estimated 41% of Americans gave experiences for Valentine’s Day instead of a physical gift, according to the National Retail Federation.
Make your own stuffed heart or toy with old fabrics or clothes you already have. Another idea could be to repurpose wine bottles or candles to create a new soy candle as a gift.
Baking goods or purchasing them from a local bakery also helps to curb emissions from shipping.
Consider celebrating with a green heart instead
While Valentine’s Day is often flooded with the colors red and pink, one nonprofit climate organization is incorporating green into the mix.
U.K.-based The Climate Coalition has embarked on the Show the Love campaign, which calls for urgent and decisive action on climate change, Helen Meech, the organization’s executive director, told ABC News.
“Climate can feel quite intangible,” Meech said. “It can feel quite sort of over there. So it’s about taking it back to people’s everyday lives and the things that they love.”
On Valentine’s Day, communities across the U.K. display green hearts in windows and residents send green hearts to local representatives to encourage environmental action.
“We’ve had kind of people from every corner of the U.K. who’ve been using the symbolism of a green heart to engage with their members of Parliament to put forward the case for action, for climate change, and to protect what we love from its in impacts,” Meech said. “And we found that … each green heart inspires another.”
(NEW YORK) — A suspect has been arrested in a violet mugging that left a 91-year-old man with multiple injuries, the New York Police Department confirmed on Monday.
Christian Torres, 45, was arrested in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City Sunday at approximately 10:15 a.m. and charged with attempted robbery, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
The attack took place in the Upper East Side neighborhood on Feb. 1 when 91-year-old Hyman Silverglad was walking on East 86th Street between First and Second Avenues around 10:30 a.m. local time, police said.
Police confirmed the suspect, believed to be Torres, pushed Silverglad to the ground and punched him while attempting to remove his wallet.
After the attack, Silverglad was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital Medical Center with multiple injuries. Torres allegedly fled the scene on foot.
In an interview with WABC in New York last week, Silverglad, and his son, James, recounted the brutal assault.
Silverglad said he was walking home from the grocery store when the assailant violently knocked him to the ground, punched him and tried to steal his wallet.
The retired attorney from Coney Island said he held onto his wallet until the suspect fled the scene.
Hyman Silverglad told WABC the fractures he sustained in the attack have left him “in agony.”
“[The suspect] threw me to the ground and I have suffered at least six fractures, very bad fractures,” he said. “I cannot walk, I’m in never-ending constant pain.”
Despite the injuries sustained, the 91-year-old maintained, “I had to fight for my life. Who wouldn’t put up a good fight?”
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case will hear arguments Monday on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade will have to testify during a hearing Thursday scheduled to examine allegations of misconduct against the two of them.
Wills and Wade, along with a number of employees in the DA’s office, have been subpoenaed to testify Thursday by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, who last month filed a motion seeking to dismiss the election charges against him and disqualify Willis on the grounds that she allegedly engaged in a “personal, romantic relationship” with Wade, one of her top prosecutors in the election case, which allegedly resulted in financial gain for both of them.
A subsequent court filing from Willis admitted to the relationship but denied that there was any financial conflict of interest that would disqualify her from the case.
Roman then accused the DA of misrepresenting in that filing aspects of the relationship, including when it began.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee set a Feb. 15 hearing to hear evidence regarding the allegations of misconduct.
Willis’ office has asked the judge to quash the subpoenas to her, Wade, the DA’s office employees, and Wade’s business associate, calling the effort “harassment and disruption.” She has also asked the judge to cancel the upcoming evidentiary hearing altogether.
Willis argued there is “no factual basis” that “could reasonably justify requiring” her and a number of her employees to become witnesses in the case, and accused Roman of “an attempt to conduct discovery in a (rather belated) effort to support reckless accusations.”
“Harassment and disruption of this type should not be entertained,” the filing says.
Roman, however, says a business associate of Wade’s will “refute” claims made in Willis’s filing, and is ready to testify on Thursday. That individual, Terrance Bradley, has been subpoenaed by Roman. The DA’s office has asked the judge to quash that subpoena as well.
Wade also filed a motion seeking to quash a subpoena for his bank records, and a former DA’s office employee is also seeking to quash a subpoena issued to her.
Trump has joined in on the effort to disqualify Willis and dismiss his charges, accusing the DA of violating her office’s ethics obligations with statements she made at a church in the wake of the allegations.
Trump, Roman, and 17 others pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Four defendants in the case subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
(NEW YORK) — “Free Palestine” was written on the gun belonging to a woman who opened fire at celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
However, a motive behind the Sunday afternoon shooting has not been determined. Sources said investigators are feverishly going through the social media and writings belonging to the suspect, described as a woman between 30 and 35 years old.
Detectives believe the suspect fired as many as 12 shots, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
When the shooter entered the church, she was accompanied by a child aged 4 or 5, Houston police chief Troy Finner said.
The suspect opened fire with a long rifle, and two off-duty officers fired back, striking and killing her, Finner said.
The child was also shot and has been hospitalized in critical condition, Finner said. It’s not clear who shot the child or the relationship between the child and shooter, police said.
A man believed to be a parishioner was also shot in the leg, Finner said.
The suspect allegedly threatened that she had a bomb, police said. Officials searched her car and backpack but nothing was found. She also appeared to be spraying an unknown substance, authorities said.
Investigators are also actively reviewing a history of arrests, they believe, the shooter has on her record, a law enforcement official said.
The shooting unfolded shortly before the church’s 2 p.m. Spanish language service was set to begin.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement, “I will not make any assumptions because information continues to come in as to what motivated the shooter, but I am asking that the investigation look into whether it was a hate crime, given the shooting took place at an all-Spanish service.”
“We all stand with the Lakewood congregation as they recover from this terrifying day and with the young child and adult who are known to have been hurt in the shooting,” Hidalgo added.
“Our community is devastated by today’s events and grateful for the swift actions of law enforcement,” Osteen wrote on social media. “Please join me in continued prayer for healing and peace.”
(NEW YORK) — A winter snowstorm is taking aim at the Northeast and could wreak havoc for major cities during the Tuesday morning commute.
New York City’s public schools, the largest system in the country, will be closed Tuesday, with classes moving to remove learning, Mayor Eric Adams announced. Boston Public Schools will also be closed Tuesday.
The fast-moving storm will begin with rain in New York City Monday night, transitioning to snow at some point during the overnight hours.
The snowstorm is expected to last from about 7 a.m. to early Tuesday afternoon.
Snowfall rates could reach 1 to 2 inches per hour in New York City and 3 inches per hour inland of New York City, causing a very dangerous morning commute.
Winds will also be gusting between 20 and 40 mph, limiting visibility.
In Boston, the snowfall could reach extremely heavy rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour.
Eight to 12 inches of snow is expected in Boston, while suburbs to the west of Boston could be buried under 12 to 18 inches of snow.
New York City and Long Island are forecast to get 4 to 8 inches while Westchester County, New York, and northern New Jersey could see 8 to 12 inches.
Twelve to 18 inches of snow is possible in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
(HOUSTON) — A woman opened fire with a long gun inside celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Texas on Sunday afternoon before being shot and killed by off-duty police officers, authorities said.
The armed woman, who was between the ages of 30 and 35 years old, entered the Lakewood Church in Houston just before 2 p.m. local time alongside a 5-year-old boy, who was critically wounded in the shootout with police. A 57-year-old man, who is not believed to be involved in the incident, was also shot but is in stable condition, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
The suspect was gunned down by two off-duty officers who were working security at the church. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Finner said.
The injured child is hospitalized in critical condition, according to Finner.
When asked if the responding officers shot the child, the police chief told reporters he didn’t know. He added, “If it was, unfortunately, and that female, that suspect, put that baby in danger, I’m gonna put that blame on her.”
The suspect claimed to have a bomb, but no explosives were found by police, according to Finner.
“She had a long gun and it could’ve been a lot worse,” Finner said during a press conference on Sunday.
The shooting unfolded shortly before the church’s 2 p.m. Spanish language service was set to begin. Osteen’s Lakewood Church is one of the largest megachurches in the United States.
“I can only imagine what would have happened if this happened during the 11:00 service,” Osteen said. “She could have done much worse damage.”
Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
(HOUSTON) — Officers are responding to reports of a shooting at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, according to Houston police.
It appears “a possible shooter is down,” shot by one of the deputies at the scene, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said some Harris County deputies also work at the church as a part-time job.
The church confirmed shots were fired, adding, “Please pray for Lakewood and our community.”
There is an active situation involving shots fired at Lakewood. Law enforcement is on the scene.
That is all the information we have at this time. Please pray for Lakewood and our community.
(KANSAS CITY, Mo) — A mother in Kansas City, Missouri, has been arrested and charged in the death of her 1-month-old infant after allegedly mistakenly placing the baby in an oven instead of a crib, the prosecutor’s office said.
Mariah Thomas, 26, has been charged with a Class A felony, first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, in the death of her baby, Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Saturday.
“We appreciate all first responders who worked this scene and the prosecutors who went to the scene in order to issue these charges,” Baker said in a press release. “We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life. We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances.”
Police officers were dispatched to a residence in the Manheim Park neighborhood of Kansas City at around 1:30 p.m. local time Friday, responding to a call about a nonbreathing infant, according to court documents filed Saturday and obtained by ABC News.
Upon arrival, officers observed the infant victim had apparent burn wounds, according to the court documents. The Kansas City Fire Department responded and declared the 1-month-old dead at the scene, according to the court documents.
Thomas alleged she was putting the child down for a nap and accidentally mistakenly placed the child in the oven instead of the crib, according to the court documents.
“I thought I put [infant’s name redacted] in her crib, and I accidentally put her in the oven,” Thomas allegedly told the infant’s grandfather, who gave a statement to police, according to the court documents.
Court records do not yet show if Thomas has an attorney representing her.
If convicted, Thomas could face anywhere from 10 years to life in prison, according to Missouri state law.
