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(NEW YORK) — A Maine teenager charged in a New Year’s Eve machete attack on three New York City cops near Times Square was arraigned from a hospital bed on Wednesday as an unsealed criminal complaint alleges he “wanted to kill an officer in uniform.”

Trevor Bickford, 19, who was shot in the shoulder during Saturday night’s rampage as he allegedly shouted “Allahu Akhbar” while wielding a curved 18-inch kukri knife, was arraigned on charges of attempted murder, assault and attempted assault. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Bickford of Wells, Maine, carried out what a senior police official told ABC News was a terror attack likely motivated by Islamic extremism.

“I wanted to kill an officer in uniform,” Bickford allegedly told police, according to the criminal complaint. “I saw the officer and waited until he was alone. I said ‘Allahu Akbar.’ I walked up and hit him over the head with a kukri. I charged another officer but dropped the knife and I tried to get the police officer’s gun but couldn’t.”

Bickford did not enter a plea during Wednesday’s hospital room hearing. He was represented by an attorney from the Legal Aid Society who noted Bickford’s lack of criminal history and that his employment history includes working at a golf course in Maine.

“Earlier today, Mr. Bickford was arraigned from Bellevue Hospital after languishing in NYPD custody for nearly four days despite a well-established court requirement that an arraignment take place within 24-hours of arrest,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement Wednesday. “We’ve just received initial discovery from the District Attorney’s office, and we’ll have more to say about this case after a thorough review and investigation. For now, we ask the public to refrain from drawing hasty conclusions and to respect the privacy of our client’s family.”

The suspect was ordered be to be held without bail by a Manhattan judge, who determined Bickford to be “a significant flight risk.”

During the arraignment, prosecutors alleged that Bickford said all government officials “cannot be proper Muslims because of U.S. support for Israel.”

“He knew what he was doing. He knew why he was doing it and he thought he would die in the attack,” Thomas Galati, NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, told ABC News, this week.

Galati said the FBI interviewed Bickford last month in Maine after his mother reported her concern that her son was possibly becoming radicalized. The FBI determined Bickford wanted to fight in Afghanistan and placed him on a federal watch list to prevent him from travelling overseas.

Instead, Bickford acquired a large sum of cash, packed a machete and boarded a train to New York on Dec. 29. He arrived with what Galati described as intent to carry out an attack on “police officers or anybody in uniform,” seeming to advance jihadist propaganda that has called for such attacks using low-tech tactics like stabbings.

A diary found at the scene indicated Bickford thought he would die a martyr, law enforcement sources told ABC News. He ended up shot in the shoulder by an officer on the force just eight months.

“So the event happens outside the secure zone, not inside Times Square,” Galati said. “Means that our plan works.”

But some counterterrorism experts said the attack is yet another example of law enforcement, more than 20 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, being unable to deal with threats they are aware of prior to an attack. Other examples include the Nov. 19 Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school massacre and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building.

Though the circumstances and law enforcement agencies were different, the problem and results are the same, said John Cohen, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security acting undersecretary for intelligence, and a former police officer and detective.

“It has become increasingly clear that the protocols used by federal and local authorities to assess the risk posed by individuals who exhibit threat-related behaviors is out of date and inconsistent with the current threat facing the nation,” said Cohen, an ABC News contributor.

“Yet again we have experienced a mass casualty attack by an individual who was known to law enforcement, who had exhibited the warning signs but was not subject to a threat management strategy. Unfortunately this has become an all too common occurrence and too many communities have suffered as a result,” Cohen said.

Cohen said traditional approaches to disrupting international terror plots do not seem to work when dealing with “ideologically motivated, domestic offenders.”

“How many mass casualty attacks need to occur before we change our approach to assessing and managing risk?” Cohen said.

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(NEW YORK) — Newly obtained body camera video shows the moment the Indiana State Police unknowingly pulled over the suspect in the University of Idaho murders as he drove cross-country after the crimes.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was a Ph.D. student in Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology at the time of the murders. Washington State is less than 10 miles away from Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho college students were murdered.

After Kohberger’s semester ended this December, he and his father drove cross-country together to spend the holidays at the family’s Pennsylvania home, his attorney in Pennsylvania, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, told ABC News.

They drove the pre-planned road trip in the white Hyundai Elantra that authorities said they were looking for in connection to the murders, according to LaBar.

Indiana State Police said a trooper stopped Kohberger and his father east of Indianapolis on Dec. 15 for following another vehicle too closely.

Police bodycam shows the trooper identifying himself and asking for license and registration. Bryan Kohberger was in the driver’s seat.

“The Trooper, having learned the two had been stopped minutes before by a Deputy from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, who he knew was working just down the interstate from him, used his discretion and released the two men with a verbal warning,” state police said in a statement.

The state police added: “At the time of this stop, there was no information available on a suspect for the crime in Idaho, to include identifying information or any specific information related to the license plate state or number of the white Hyundai Elantra which was being reported in the media to have been seen in or around where the crime occurred.”

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office said it stopped Kohberger just nine minutes before the Indiana State Police. The father and son were pulled over at that time for speeding, according to LaBar. The sheriff’s department also said there was no information at the time on the suspect in the Idaho crimes or specific information on the white Hyundai Elantra.

Kohberger, who was arrested in Pennsylvania on Friday on first-degree murder and burglary charges, agreed to be extradited to Idaho during a Tuesday court appearance.

LaBar said his client was “eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”

Kohberger is accused in the Nov. 13 murders of University of Idaho roommates Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin. The four victims were stabbed to death at the girls’ off-campus house in the middle of the night in a crime that terrorized the college town and garnered national interest.

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said the Moscow Police Department’s only prior interaction with Kohberger was a traffic citation for not wearing a seat belt that was issued while the suspect drove the white Elantra.

ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.

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(BOSTON) — William “Rick” Singer, the ringleader in a college admissions cheating scandal that spanned the country, is expected to be sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge.

The former college admissions consultant pleaded guilty in March 2019 to helping parents of dozens of well-to-do high school students cheat their way into elite universities.

His sentence will come nearly four years after his plea, as he helped prosecutors convict his former clients, including high-powered executives, fashion moguls and Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

Singer, 62, pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of six years in prison — much more than the six-month maximum Singer’s lawyers requested.

His sentence all but marks the end of “Operation Varsity Blues,” the moniker for the prosecutors’ investigation that uncovered a cheating ring of approximately 50 defendants.

Among those prosecuted were parents who paid Singer more than $6 million, Ivy League coaches who opened sham spots on their rosters for Singer’s clients in exchange for bribes and test administrators who were paid to fudge applicants’ entrance exam scores.

Prosecutors said Singer was the mastermind of the decades-long scheme, which has since become the subject of at least four books, a Lifetime movie and a Netflix documentary.

He convinced wealthy clients to pay him bribes in order to give their children a leg up at schools such as Yale, Georgetown and the University of Southern California, prosecutors said. Singer then funneled the money through his charity he said would support disadvantaged youth, allowing his co-conspirators to write off their dues as tax deductions.

Singer was “exceptionally valuable” following his plea deal, according to prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum. He agreed to have his phone tapped to help indict his former clients and accomplices, allowing the government to secure the convictions.

Still, his cooperation was laden with missteps, prosecutors wrote. He met in person with at least six of his former clients to warn them about the investigation and was subsequently convicted of obstructing justice.

“He was the architect and mastermind of a criminal enterprise that massively corrupted the integrity of the college admissions process,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum.

“Without Singer, the scheme never would have happened,” they added.

In his own memorandum, Singer wrote that he had forfeited his assets, including a sprawling mansion in Orange County, California, which he exchanged for a modest home in a Florida trailer park.

“I have been reflecting on my very poor judgment and criminal activities that increasingly had become my way of life,” he wrote. “I have woken up every day feeling shame, remorse and regret.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot is closing in on another 10-digit jackpot in the billions after no ticket matched all six numbers that were drawn on Tuesday night.

The winning numbers that were drawn — the white balls 25, 29, 33, 41 and 44, plus the gold Mega Ball 18 — means that the estimated prize is now at an estimated $940 million — or a lump sum cash option of $483.5 million — for the next drawing which will take place this Friday evening.

“In more than 20 years since the game began in 2002, there have been just three larger jackpots than Friday’s estimated prize,” Mega Millions said in a statement announcing that nobody had won the Mega Millions jackpot. “The Mega Millions record remains $1.537 billion, won by a single ticket in South Carolina on October 23, 2018. Two years ago, a $1.05 billion prize was won in Michigan on January 22, 2021, and there was that big $1.337 billion jackpot won in Illinois last July.”

There have now been 23 consecutive drawings with no Mega Millions jackpot winner dating back to Oct. 14.

“Across the country, 68 tickets matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball to win the third-tier prize,” Mega Millions said. “Twelve of those tickets are worth $40,000 each, because they also included the optional Megaplier. The other 56 third-tier winning tickets are worth $10,000 each.”

In total, there were six Mega Millions jackpots awarded in 2022, ranging from $20 million in Tennessee to $1.337 billion in Illinois. The jackpot that was awarded in the latest win in October was $502 million, shared by winning tickets in California and Florida.

“Since the jackpot was last won on October 14, the number of winning tickets at all prize levels has grown to more than 22.7 million across the country through 23 drawings,” Mega Millions said. “These include 47 worth $1 million or more, won in 19 different states from coast to coast: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.”

The drawing on Jan. 6 will be the second drawing of 2023 and, if nobody wins again, the jackpot will likely be estimated to be into the billions.

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(NEW YORK) — A New Year’s Eve machete rampage targeting police officers in Times Square is the latest example of law enforcement failing to prevent an individual already on their radar from carrying out an act of violence, prompting some counterterrorism experts to call for a new model for evaluating would-be attackers.

The Times Square assault on three New York City police officers came just weeks after the suspect, 19-year-old Trevor Bickford of Maine, was placed on a federal watch list, authorities said. The FBI evaluated Bickford when his mother informed the agency he was gravitating toward Islamic extremism, officials said.

While Bickford was placed on a federal no-fly list, he took an Amtrak train to New York allegedly intent on attacking police officers, authorities said.

Bickford was taken into custody after being shot in the shoulder by a police officer. He is charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault. He remained in a hospital Tuesday evening, pending an arraignment.

John Cohen, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security acting undersecretary for intelligence, said the case is the latest in a string of attacks nationwide where law enforcement made contact with a suspect prior to an attack and assessed the potential for them to carry out a violent act.

“It has become increasingly clear that the protocols used by federal and local authorities to assess the risk posed by individuals who exhibit threat-related behaviors is out of date and inconsistent with the current threat facing the nation,” said Cohen, now an ABC News contributor.

Cohen noted that suspects in several recent mass casualty incidents had been evaluated by law enforcement prior to committing the acts of violence, including Payton Gendron, the teenager who pleaded guilty to killing 10 Black people in a racially motivated shooting in Buffalo, New York, and Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 17 students in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, who allegedly killed five people and wounded 17 others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado in November, had been arrested in 2001 on allegations of making a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of about 10 homes. A year before he killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis in 2021, Brandon Scott Hole was taken into custody by police and temporarily placed in a mental detention facility for further assessment after his mother complained he assaulted her when she asked what he was going to do with the gun, officials said.

Omar Mateen, who in 2016 killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was allowed to legally purchase an AR-style rifle and a handgun despite his name appearing on a federal watch list after being interviewed three times by the FBI in the years leading up to the massacre at the gay nightclub, according to authorities.

“We’re still, from an investigator’s perspective, looking for that Mohamed Atta,” said Cohen, referring to one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks. “We’re looking for somebody who we can associate with a foreign terrorist group or looking at somebody who meets the threshold of a federal terrorism investigation.”

Cohen added, “That’s why we continue to see instances where people come to the attention of the bureau or law enforcement, they’re assessed that way, they don’t meet that threshold, they don’t become the subject of a full-field investigation, yet they go out and commit an act of violence.”

Cohen said threats today are very different from ones the nation faced on Sept. 11, 2001.

“We’re not dealing with a group of sophisticated, ideologically motivated foreign terrorists. We’re dealing with individuals, all of which, regardless of the motive, are experiencing somewhat consistent behavioral health issues,” he said.

He said a better approach, increasingly adopted by state and local agencies, is to “look at individuals holistically” when they come to the attention of law enforcement.

“What it entails is that you have specially trained law enforcement working with mental health professionals. They look at individuals holistically. Maybe they come to the attention of law enforcement initially because of their online behavior, maybe it’s other behaviors they’re exhibiting that family or others observe,” Cohen said.

He said there are reams of data culled from mass shootings and terrorist attacks showing a common pattern of behavior in perpetrators that can be used in assessing risk.

“We’re dealing with individuals, all of which, regardless of the motive, are experiencing somewhat consistent behavioral health issues,” Cohen said. “They feel disconnected from community, they’re angry, they’re searching for a sense of life meaning, they come from dysfunctional family backgrounds, they spend a considerable amount of time online viewing content placed there by terrorist groups, by extremists, content regarding past shootings and other ideological or extremist content until ultimately they connect with something or a blend of beliefs, or a blend of beliefs and grievances.”

Cohen said much of the new model for assessing the risk of such individuals is detailed in a 2015 FBI report titled, “Making Prevention a Reality.”

“Threat assessment is a systematic, fact-based method of investigation and examination that blends the collection of analysis of multiple sources of information with published research and practitioner experience, focusing on an individual’s patterns of thinking and behavior to determine whether, and to what extent, a person of concern is moving toward an attack,” the report states.

The report adds, “By engaging in the assessment and management process as soon as a person of concern is identified, threat managers are more likely to succeed in preventing a violent outcome. Steering a person in a different direction early on may mean offering assistance to someone who needs it before that person concludes violence is necessary.”

Thomas Galati, NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, said the suspect in Saturday night’s Times Square attack was interviewed by FBI agents last month in Maine after his mother reported concerns that her son was possibly becoming radicalized. The FBI determined Bickford allegedly wanted to fight in Afghanistan and placed him on a federal watch list to prevent him from traveling overseas, Galati said.

“The way you know they (the FBI) took the traditional approach is they viewed the primary threat as his travel to Afghanistan,” Cohen said. “So, they no-flyed him. They tried to restrict his ability to travel, but look what happened.”

By contrast, he noted a recent case in Maryland, where a teenager posted on Instagram that he wanted to shoot up his high school and was reported to a school resource officer by classmates.

“The school resource officer went to the threat management unit, which did a threat assessment and deemed the person to be high risk,” Cohen said. “They believed this person was on their way to engage in violence and they prevented it. They went to the courts, they invoked the red flag law. The person got additional mental health care.”

But Cohen conceded there are likely “thousands” of reports like the one flagged to authorities in Maryland.

“I acknowledge that it requires additional training, it requires resources, it requires a different way of looking at these issues,” Cohen said. “But the alternative is we continue to experience the weekly shootings or other mass casualty attacks that we seem to be experiencing today.”

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(KEY WEST, Fla.) — Two cruise lines rescued two dozen people on small boats on Monday, cruise officials told ABC News.

Staff on the Fort Lauderdale-bound Celebrity Beyond ship rescued 19 people from a boat Monday and provided them food, shelter and medical services, the ship’s Capt. Kate McCue said in a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday.

“We are grateful for our crew’s quick action and the lives saved as a result,” Celebrity Cruises told ABC News in a statement.

Additionally, crew members from the Carnival Celebration noticed five people about 29 miles northwest of Cuba and stopped to help them, company spokesperson Matt Lupoli told ABC News in a statement.

The crew reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard and met up with them near Key West, Florida.

After that, “The ship resumed on its voyage with its scheduled itinerary unaffected and Carnival Celebration returned to Miami on Tuesday morning after a week-long Caribbean cruise,” Lupoli said.

The Coast Guard did not respond to request for comment.

The rescues came the same day as Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys announced Monday it would close to the public after an influx of migrant landings over the past few days shut down operations at the park there.

“Homeland Security Task Force – Southeast is aware of multiple migrant landings this weekend on Dry Tortugas National Park and the Marquesas. The U.S. Coast Guard and partner federal, state and local components in HSTF-SE are coordinating efforts to recover the individuals currently stranded on the remote, uninhabited islands,” Rear Adm. Brendan C. McPherson, commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District and director of Homeland Security Task Force, said in a statement.

Dry Tortugas is a 100-square-mile park located 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. It comprises seven small islands and is accessible only by boat or seaplane.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Amber McLaughlin is set to be the first openly transgender person executed in the U.S and the first person executed in 2023, according to non-profit execution tracker Death Penalty Information Center.

McLaughlin, 49, is scheduled to die by injection in Missouri on Tuesday.

Her execution has been highlighted by activists, politicians and legal experts, including former judges for what they call failures in the sentencing phase of the trial.

McLaughlin was sentenced to death in the killing of a former girlfriend Beverly Guenther in 2003. McLaughlin was found guilty of first degree murder, armed criminal action and forcible rape.

According to McLaughlin’s counsel, expert testimony and evidence of her mental health experiences were never presented in the sentencing phase of the trial. Still, the jury did not recommend the death penalty, according to the application for executive clemency from McLaughlin’s counsel.

Rather, the death penalty was imposed on McLaughlin by a trial judge when the jury deadlocked on a punishment decision.

Though most death-penalty states require a unanimous jury vote for death, Missouri law states that a nonunanimous jury vote is a hung jury, which can trigger the “statutory provision that allowed McLaughlin’s trial judge to independently impose sentence,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

A federal district court judge vacated McLaughlin’s death sentence in 2016 based on the lack of mental health evidence, but the decision was reversed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declined to commute McLaughlin’s sentence.

“McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence remains after multiple, thorough examinations of Missouri law. McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms. Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” Parson said in a statement Tuesday. “Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”

In statements to police before her death, Guenther said the defendant threatened her and her friends and stalked her, according to court documents. Guenther had a protective order against McLaughlin, who had also been charged with burglarizing Guenther’s trailer, court documents said.

McLaughlin’s counsel said she “never had a chance,” according to the application for executive clemency. Her counsel described the abuse and neglect that McLaughlin allegedly faced from her family and in the foster care system and the brain damage and trauma she has experienced due to this.

“She was failed by the institutions, individuals and interventions that should have protected her, and her abusers obstructed the care she so desperately needed,” the application for executive clemency read. “McLaughlin has been consistently diagnosed with borderline intellectual disability. She has also been universally diagnosed with brain damage as well as fetal alcohol syndrome.”

Missouri Democratic Reps. Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver sent a letter on Dec. 27 to Parson urging him to commute McLaughlin’s sentence due to “injustices” in McLaughlin’s sentencing.

“Ms. McLaughlin’s cruel execution would mark the state’s first use of the death penalty on a woman since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, and even worse it would not solve any of the systemic problems facing Missourians and people all across America, including anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence, and cycles of violence that target and harm women,” the letter said.

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(NEW YORK) — Frank James pleaded guilty Tuesday to opening fire on a New York City subway car during the morning commute on April 12, injuring 10 passengers.

“While I was on the train, I fired a weapon,” James said at the court hearing. “My intent was to cause serious bodily injury to the people on the train. Although it was not my intention to cause death, I was fully aware that a death or deaths could occur as a result of my discharging a firearm in such an enclosed space as a subway car.”

James faces up to life in prison on each of the 11 counts.

“James’s admission of guilt to all eleven counts of the superseding indictment acknowledges the terror and pain he caused,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release. “This guilty plea is an important step towards holding James fully accountable and helping the victims of the defendant’s violence and our great city heal.”

Prosecutors revealed that James had been planning an attack since 2017.

James has been charged with 10 counts of committing a terror attack or other violence on a mass transit system as well as one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, according to the indictment. He pleaded guilty to all 11 counts.

James “terrifyingly opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way this City hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik.

Winik continued, “The defendant’s attack was premeditated; it was carefully planned and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city.”

The shooting unfolded shortly before 8:30 a.m., just as the train approached the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

James allegedly donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing 33 bullets, according to police. He escaped the scene but was captured the next day by police.

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(MONROE COUNTY, Penn.) — The 28-year-old man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November agreed to be extradited to Idaho during his Tuesday court appearance in Monroe County, Pennsylvania.

Bryan Kohberger mouthed the words “I love you” to his parents and two sisters as he was escorted out of the courtroom.

His family was emotional during the hearing, crying at times. Kohberger made eye contact with his father at one point during the hearing.

Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology, was arrested last week on first-degree murder and burglary charges.

Kohberger’s attorney, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, said in a statement his client “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”

LaBar told ABC News that the death penalty is on the table.

Kohberger was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains for the Nov. 13 murders of roommates Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.

The four victims were stabbed to death at the girls’ off-campus house in the middle of the night.

After Kohberger’s semester at Washington State ended this December, he and his father drove cross-country together, arriving at the family’s Pennsylvania home on Dec. 13, exactly one month after the murders, LaBar told ABC News.

They drove the pre-planned road trip in the white Hyundai Elantra that authorities said they were looking for in connection to the murders, according to LaBar.

The father and son were pulled over twice in Indiana, once for speeding and once for tailgating, LaBar said.

Police have not said what led them to Kohberger, but law enforcement sources told ABC News that authorities identified him as a suspect through public DNA genealogy databases.

The probable cause affidavit, which details the reasons for the arrest, is sealed and won’t be released until he returns to Idaho, according to Latah County, Idaho, Prosecutor Bill Thompson.

No other arrests are expected, Moscow Police Chief James Fry told ABC News.

The chief said the Moscow Police Department’s only prior interaction with Kohberger was a traffic citation for not wearing a seat belt that was issued while the suspect drove the white Elantra.

Steve Goncalves, dad of victim Kaylee Goncalves, said the arrest has brought relief and comfort.

It “felt like a cloud was lifted off of us,” he told “Good Morning America.” “All this torture of waiting had a purpose and a meaning.”

Kohberger’s family said in a statement, “We care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children. There are no words that can adequately express the sadness we feel.”

“We will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother,” the family said.

ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth, Luke Barr, Nick Cirone, Matt Foster and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A total of 22 people were injured after a car crashed into a restaurant in upper Manhattan on Monday night. Three people refused medical attention at the scene and 19 others were transported to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, according to the NYPD.

Police responded to a 911 call of a vehicle collision involving multiple injured people at around 9 p.m. at the Inwood Bar and Grill, according to officials.

A preliminary investigation determined that an Audi sedan exited a gas station on West 204 St and Broadway and collided into the rear of a Toyota RAV4 on Broadway, according to officials.

The 31-year-old male driver of the Toyota then lost control of his car and the vehicle mounted the curb and drove into the front glass window of the Inwood Bar and Grill, according to officials.

The driver of the Audi sedan did not remain at the scene and the vehicle was last seen heading northbound on Broadway, according to officials.

The driver of the Toyota was transported to New York Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition, according to officials.

Officials said the investigation remains ongoing.

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