(PITTSBURGH, Penn.) — A man wanted in connection with the shooting of two police officers, one fatally, died on Monday after being shot by officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, authorities said.
“While fleeing from officers, the suspect fired at officers,” Allegheny County Police Superintendent Christopher Kearns said. “The officers returned fire. The suspect was struck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”
The suspect, Aaron Lamont Swan, 28, had initially fled a traffic stop, Kearns said. He was wanted for probation violations and weapons charges, officials said.
An hours-long search for him in the town of Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, turned into a foot pursuit and ended with multiple “shooting incidents,” according to authorities in Allegheny County.
The deceased officer was struck in the head by gunfire. The injured officer was struck in the leg and is stable, authorities said.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Monday night identified the slain officer as Police Chief Justin McIntire.
“Today’s tragedy in Brackenridge is a devastating reminder of the bravery of those who put their lives on the line every day to protect us,” said Shapiro, who is also the state’s governor-elect.
“Police Chief Justin McIntire ran towards danger to keep Pennsylvanians safe — and he made the ultimate sacrifice in service to community,” he added.
Kearns later Monday said Swan had fled the scene in Brackenridge in a stolen silver Subaru. Detectives in Pittsburgh were alerted that he may be headed there. Officers mobilized and “saturated” the city’s Lincoln neighborhood, where they believed the suspect might have fled, Kearns said.
“They attempted to stop the vehicle,” he said. “The vehicle fled.”
The suspect led Pittsburgh police officers on a car chase, before crashing the Subaru and fleeing into nearby woods, Kearns said. Police surrounded the area. The suspect then fled into a housing development, where he exchanged gunfire with police, authorities said. Swan was pronounced dead at the scene, they said.
“Based on the description and the circumstances, we believe that is in fact the suspect we were seeking in the shooting of the officers in Brackenridge this afternoon,” Kearns said.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Police identified Bryan Christopher Kohberger as the suspect accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November through DNA using public genealogy databases, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Local police and the FBI tracked him to Pennsylvania through his vehicle. The FBI surveilled the house in the Pocono Mountains for four days prior to the arrest.
The 28-year-old was arrested Friday morning for the murders of roommates Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.
Kohberger is a graduate student at Washington State University, located less than 10 miles away from the University of Idaho, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said at a Friday news conference.
The murder weapon has not been recovered, the chief said.
Jason LaBar, Kohberger’s public defender in Pennsylvania, confirmed to ABC News on Monday that Bryan and his father Michael were pulled over twice in Indiana while driving from Pullman, Washington, to the Poconos, saying it was “approximately an hour apart, once for speeding, once for tailgating.”
The pair were doing their preplanned, end-of-semester cross-country road trip, arriving at the family home on Dec. 13, 2022, exactly one month after the murders. They drove in the white Elantra, which is now being processed by authorities.
Washington State University identifies Kohberger as a Ph.D. student in its department of criminal justice and criminology. He completed his first semester in its criminal justice program earlier this month, the university said.
Within an hour of Kohberger being identified as the suspect, more than 400 calls came in to the Moscow Police Department’s tip line, Fry said.
Kohberger is set to appear in Monroe County Court to face his charges, which include four counts of first-degree murder and burglary.
It is also the first step in his extradition to Idaho, where he will have another appearance.
Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who is representing the suspect, previously said Kohberger “intends to waive his extradition hearing to expedite his transport to Idaho” and that he “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
Police have said they cannot reveal any information, including a motive or further details about how they tracked down Kohberger, until he is back in Idaho.
Many details of the case remain a mystery including a potential motive for the murders or how Kohberger knew the victims.
Authorities announced earlier this month that they were looking to speak with the driver of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was spotted near the victims’ house around the time of the crime.
Asked at Friday’s news conference if that car has now been found, the chief replied, “We have found an Elantra.”
Fry later told ABC News Saturday that Kohberger is believed to be the only suspect in the high-profile case, authorities said.
“We believe we have our guy, the one that committed these murders,” he said, adding that he does not anticipate any additional arrests.
Prior to attending Washington State University, Kohberger attended college at DeSales University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completing graduate studies in June 2022.
“As a Catholic, Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this difficult time,” the university said in a statement following his arrest.
ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth and Timmy Truong contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A tornado watch was issued for portions of the South, including parts of eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana and much of Arkansas on Monday.
The tornado watch lasts until 9 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service.
Strong to severe thunderstorms will develop across the region with the possibility of damaging winds, hail and a brief tornado risk overnight, putting 22 million Americans, from Texas to Tennessee, under alert.
Thunderstorms will develop ahead of a cold front making its way through southeast Texas late Monday night into Tuesday morning, according to the NWS.
Additionally, the storms could also produce flash flooding through Monday night. Flood watches are in effect.
By Tuesday, the severe storms will shift east across Mississippi and Alabama, with flooding and damaging winds possible from New Orleans to Montgomery, Alabama.
The same storm system that brought flooding to California over the weekend has now moved into the Central U.S., bringing the winter storm to the North and the severe weather and flooding to the South.
At least 22 states, from California to Indiana, are under alert for heavy snow, dangerous ice, high winds and flooding rain.
More than 3 feet of snow fell in the Sierra Mountains in California over the weekend. According to the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, up to 7.5 inches of snow fell per hour on Saturday in the Sierras.
Over a foot of snow and winds over 40 mph is possible in Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday, potentially causing driving conditions and power outages.
The ice event began on Monday afternoon and will continue throughout the day, with snow falling and covering the ice on Tuesday morning.
(NEW YORK) — The 19-year-old accused of attacking three police officers with a machete on New Year’s Eve near Times Square has been charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault.
Trevor Bickford, from Maine, attacked the officers unprovoked after taking a train to the city on Dec. 29. His mother and aunt recently notified law enforcement about their concerns he was gravitating toward dangerous Islamist ideologies, law enforcement sources said.
Police found the suspect’s backpack at the scene, which contained a diary, sources said.
The final diary entry indicated the suspect thought he would die in the attack and asked for burial according to Islamic tradition, the sources said.
The three officers were released from the hospital on Sunday.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — After a blizzard left 39 people dead across New York’s Erie County, the City of Buffalo announced that New York University will conduct an “after-action report” about the region’s response to the storm, according to Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown.
NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service will review the storm preparation, response and recovery to outline best practices for other major cities as well as offer Buffalo feedback, according to Brown.
“The City of Buffalo is resolved to learn from this storm and make additional improvements in how we respond to future extreme winter snow storms,” Brown wrote in a statement.
The deadly blizzard devastated the region, killing at least 39, requiring residents to stay off roads for nearly a week and cutting off residents from emergency services at the storm’s peak.
“There is no guarantee that in a life threatening emergency situation that they’re going to be able to respond immediately,” Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz said at a Dec. 24 press conference, adding that the most affected areas would have no emergency services at all.
At the time of the press conference, two-thirds of emergency vehicles were stuck in the snow.
As the New York National Guard including military police moved to Buffalo to help with recovery efforts, many residents were left to fend for themselves and their communities.
“Nobody would come,” Buffalo resident Tayron Knight said when explaining how he got stuck on Niagara Falls Boulevard. “I called the police numerous times — the police told me I was on a waiting list that they couldn’t see nobody out.”
Another resident, Eddie Porter, explained how he got stuck on the road during the storm for 28 hours. His calls to police were left unanswered, he said. He noted that he called police on Dec. 23 and eventually heard back on Dec. 29.
“I thought it was over like it was going to be; You ever felt that you’re going to die and you can’t do nothing about it?” Porter asked in an emotional interview with ABC News.
Instead of being rescued by police, Porter was rescued by William Kless, a local resident who spent days saving an estimated fifty residents on his snowmobile.
“If he hadn’t been there, I don’t know what I was gonna do,” Porter said.
In an interview with ABC News, Kless said he ended up helping residents get to shelters, transporting dogs and cats, transporting supplies and even helping a man get critical dialysis treatments after being stuck in his car for 17 hours. In person, over social media or via calls with police, Kless learned information about the needs in the community and offered door-to-door to help, he said.
“There were so many calls that emergency services were canceled, you know, there’s so many people left helpless, not realizing when they’re going to be able to get help,” Kless said.
Kless added that he communicated with Buffalo police when they could not safely get to a location with their vehicles.
“It was just like a search and rescue,” he said. “The Buffalo police were involved because they couldn’t get down on the streets.”
During a Dec. 24 press conference, Poloncarz flagged the lack of vehicle mobility as an issue, since the county, city and state lacked snowmobiles and relied on traditional emergency response vehicles and National Guard Humvees.
Knight said he was eventually rescued by a friend, after which he began to work with friends and family to coordinate rescues in the absence of emergency services.
“We started going around helping everybody in the city of Buffalo, as many people as we can,” Knight said. “We had put up our numbers, so if anybody that was trapped, or had no power, or in desperate need of emergency, [if] they needed any help that wasn’t getting any help from the city of Buffalo, they could give us a call.”
Knight estimated they received hundreds of calls to the point where they had to triage responses based on the highest-priority emergencies.
Looking back on their experience with the storm, Kless, Knight and Porter each flagged issues with the city’s response.
“We didn’t see any paramedics, any police, any firemen, any emergency response teams at all,” Kless said. “It was literally they didn’t come out till about the day after once the storm and everything calmed down.”
Porter added that he was frustrated by the lack of emergency response in some communities within Buffalo, believing the city “dropped the ball” for the east side, a largely African American area, where casualties from the storm were common.
“Let’s be clear — that was one of the reasons it was so tragic,” Porter said
Knight said he believes that not only should Buffalo have been better prepared, but that the city could have saved lives if it had its act together.
“They knew everything was happening days beforehand, they were warned and knew how bad the storm was going to be,” he said. “They should have had the right personnel on hand.”
At one point, Poloncarz publicly called out Buffalo for its “embarrassing” response, before eventually apologizing for his statements.
“Storm after storm after storm after storm, the city unfortunately is the last one to be open. And that shouldn’t be the case,” he said. “It’s embarrassing to tell the truth.”
He added that Erie County took over operations for one third of the city.
Residents said they’ve been left with traumatic repercussions of the storm, an unprecedented death toll and feelings of regret about what could have been done, regardless of who was to blame.
“Most of this could have been prevented as far as fatalities,” Knight said.
(NEW YORK) — A strong storm moving through the intermountain West and upper Midwest, with far-reaching impacts to the Gulf of Mexico, will bring blizzard conditions to the North and potential tornadoes in the South.
Storms, threatening destructive winds and tornadoes, will develop by noon on Monday from Houston, Texas, to Shreveport, Louisiana, building up throughout the afternoon and getting bigger by Monday evening.
Thunderstorms will develop ahead of a cold front making its way through southeast Texas late Monday night into Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
Over 3 feet of snow fell in the Sierra mountains in California over the weekend. According to the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, up to 7.5 inches of snow fell per hour on Saturday in the Sierras.
Sixteen states are under winter and/or wind alerts, with a winter storm expected to bring near-blizzard conditions to the upper Midwest on Monday and Tuesday.
A winter storm warning has also been issued in Salt Lake City, Utah, for Sunday, with forecasts predicting between 4 to 6 inches of snow.
Snow arrives in Denver, Colorado, around midnight, with 3 to 4 inches expected and up to a foot of snow in Vail and possibly over 2 feet of snow in southwestern Colorado.
The Mogollon Rim in east central Arizona is expecting heavy snow Sunday with rates that may approach more than 3 inches per hour.
Over a foot of snow and winds over 40 mph is possible in Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday, potentially causing driving conditions and power outages.
The ice event will begin on Monday afternoon and continue throughout the day, with snow falling and covering the ice on Tuesday morning.
Ahead of the storm, temperatures are expected to rise in the East and Midwest to the 60s, with several locations, including Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Buffalo, nearing record highs.
For Buffalo, that is a near reversal from last week, which saw a massive winter storm impact the area and other parts of western New York.
Buffalo was hit with continued whiteout conditions and freezing temperatures that contributed to dozens of fatalities.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has called the Christmas weekend storm the “blizzard of the century.”
“This will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long, storied history of having battled … many, many major storms,” Hochul, a Buffalo native, said during a Christmas morning news conference.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — One person was found dead in their vehicle in California on Sunday morning, as a winter storm brought flooding and heavy snow to the state, a Sacramento Metro Fire spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
A Sacramento Metro Fire spokesperson confirmed that the deceased was recovered from their flooded vehicle in the southernmost part of Sacramento County, near the city of Elk Grove.
The identity and cause of death of the deceased haven’t been confirmed pending a coroner’s examination, according to Sacramento Metro Fire.
The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued flash flood warnings for the area, urging drivers to stay off the road.
A levee break in several places caused the flooding in the area, Sacramento Metro Fire Captain and Public Information Officer Parker Wilbourn told ABC News.
The Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services ordered residents in Wilton to shelter in place earlier Saturday afternoon.
“Rising water has made roads impassable in the area,” the office said in an advisory.
According to Caltrans District 3, which maintains the state highway system in 11 northern California counties, a highway near Elk Grove has been closed because the Cosumnes River flooded.
Two more storms are expected for the next week in northern California, with the second storm scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, possibly causing flooding in the area, according to NWS Sacramento.
Over 5 inches of rain had fallen in downtown San Francisco on Saturday, setting a new daily record, the National Weather Service for the San Francisco Bay Area said.
The West Coast is being slammed with an atmospheric river, which usually brings heavy rain, wind and snow to areas that it flows through, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA describes atmospheric rivers as “rivers in the sky” because they’re somewhat long and narrow regions in the atmosphere that send most of the water vapor outside the tropics.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(MOBILE, Ala.) — One person is dead and nine are injured following a shooting on New Year’s Eve in Mobile, Alabama.
The shooting happened around 11:14 p.m. local time on the 200 block of Dauphin Street, according to the Mobile Police Department.
When officers arrived, police found a deceased 24-year-old male. Nine other people suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.
The victims, ages 17 to 57, were transported to local hospitals with injuries ranging from non-life-threatening to severe. Police said two businesses were also struck by gunfire.
Police said Sunday that a man is now in custody in connection with the shooting. “The subject is receiving medical treatment and, upon release, will be transported to Metro Jail and charged with murder,” the Mobile Police Department said in a statement.
If you have information about the case, you can contact the Mobile Police Department at (251) 208-721.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma police are investigating a shooting just after midnight Sunday near New Year’s Eve festivities in Oklahoma City.
One man was killed and at least three individuals were injured in the shooting that erupted in a parking lot near Northwest 10th Street and North Hudson Avenue in the downtown area, according to ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV.
No arrests were announced.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
(RIO DELL, Calif.) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 shook Northern California on New Year’s Day, striking in the same area where a tremor killed two people and caused major damage less than two weeks ago, authorities said.
Sunday’s earthquake occurred at 10:35 a.m. and its epicenter was pinpointed nine miles east of Rio Dell in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. Route 211 was temporarily closed as inspectors checked a bridge that crosses the Eel River in Humboldt County for damage, according to the California Department of Transportation.
The shaker caused a power outage in the Rio Dell area, about 245 miles north of San Francisco. The Pacific Gas & Electric Company reported that 500 to 4,999 utility customers are affected by the outage.
The quake struck 12 days after one hit the same area.
On Dec. 20, a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same area, killing two people, a 73-year-old and an 83-year-old, who died as “a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following the earthquake,” officials said. The previous earthquake injured 17 people, knocked out power and water to the city of Rio Dell, caused a major water main break and shook several homes off their foundations, county officials said.
Gage Dupper, who was displaced by the earlier quake, which knocked his home off its foundation, told ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV that he’s been living as a “nomad.”
“Today was another pretty big one. Still feels like we are shaking to me. We just can’t catch a break it seems,” Dupper said.
He said he was working in Fortuna, next to Del Rio, when Sunday’s quake occurred.
“But even just here it felt like the ceiling was going to come down,” Dupper said. “We nearly lost our power here as well. I was in the middle of talking to a resident of the assisted living community I work for and you could just see the panic in their eyes when it started. She was just trying to pay her rent. It certainly tossed us around a bit.”
(NEW YORK) — An “unprovoked” machete attack on three New York City police officers near Times Square on New Year’s Eve is being investigated as a possible terrorist incident. The suspect is allegedly a 19-year-old man from Maine, whose online posts indicate recent Islamic radicalization, sources told ABC News.
Investigators are looking into whether the suspect came to the annual ball drop specifically to wage an attack on law enforcement, the sources said.
The incident occurred just after 10 p.m. on Saturday near West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, outside the secure area that had been set up for New Year’s Eve celebrations, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters at a news conference at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital.
“Unprovoked, a 19-year-old male approached an officer and attempted to strike him over the head with a machete,” Sewell said. “The male then struck two additional officers in the head with the machete.”
One of the officers fired their weapon, striking the suspect in the shoulder, Sewell said. The suspect was taken into custody, she said.
The three injured officers were taken to Bellevue, Sewell said.
Suspect relatives reported concerns
While a motive remains under investigation, authorities are not ruling out the possibility that the suspect came to New York City specifically to attack police officers at the Times Square ball drop, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Multiple law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, Maine. He took an Amtrak train to New York City on Dec. 29, the sources said.
Federal and local law enforcement investigators are combing through the suspect’s online postings, which indicate recent extremist Islamic radicalization, the sources said.
Bickford has no prior arrests. His mother and aunt notified law enforcement in recent weeks about their concerns he was gravitating toward dangerous Islamist ideologies, the sources said. The report prompted the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to look into the suspect, the law enforcement sources said.
The NYPD counterterrorism bureau is investigating the New Year’s Eve attack in conjunction with the FBI.
Should authorities determine the attack was motivated by an Islamist ideology, it would make it the first terror incident associated with New Year’s Eve in Times Square, authorities said.
Prior to New Year’s Eve, the NYPD noted in a pre-event assessment that throughout December “multiple pro-ISIS users disseminated extremist propaganda graphics broadly calling for attacks in advance of the New Year, advocating a wide range of low-tech tactics.” Islamist terror groups have long promoted knife attacks.
Both federal and local law enforcement stressed at Sunday morning’s news conference the attack appeared to be an isolated incident and there was no longer a threat.
Injured officers in stable condition
One of the injured officers, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD, suffered a laceration to the head, officials said. Another hurt officer had just graduated from the police academy on Friday, and as is traditionally the case, his first assignment was the New Year’s Eve detail in Times Square. The rookie officer was also struck in the head, resulting in a skull fracture and large laceration, officials said.
“We are really pleased by the response and how our officers handled this situation,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “All three of the officers are in stable conditions and there are no critical threats to New Yorkers at this time.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Mike Driscoll said the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved to “ascertain what is the nature of the attack.” He said that the FBI believes the attacker was acting alone.
The NYPD released an image of a weapon, saying it had been recovered at the scene. The weapon appeared to be a Gurkha knife, a type of curved blade, according to ABC News contributor Darrell M. Blocker, a retired CIA operative.
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said, “Let’s think about those family members here who are in shock right now, never thinking the first call of the year would be their son, their husband, their family member would be here in Bellevue Hospital.”
‘Everybody’s panicking’
Videos from the scene appeared to show revelers jogging through the rain as they were directed away from the scene by columns of police officers.
David Lyugovski, of California, told ABC News that he saw dozens of officers, some with guns drawn, running toward the scene of the incident.
“They’re all telling us to go towards the viewing area for the ball drop and everybody’s running, everybody’s panicking,” Lyugovski said.
Lyugovski and his brother-in-law, Andrew Dyachkin, of South Carolina, were in New York to watch the Times Square ball drop, they said in a joint video interview.
“Somebody’s yelling, ‘Calm down, calm down,’ because everybody’s on edge,” Dyachkin said. “Like, I’m sure in the back of all of our minds, now this could be a target for, you know, shooting.”
He added, “We thought someone is trying to shoot, you know, as many people as possible. Another mass shooting.”
One of the officers involved in the incident had graduated from the police academy on Friday, Sewell said.
Adams spoke at the officer’s graduation ceremony, he said.
“It just goes to show you, it could be your first day or it could be your last day, the actions that police officers must take every day are life-threatening situations,” Adams said.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Keith Harden, Patricio Chile and Mark Crudele contributed to this report.
