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(LOS ANGELES) — A family is pleading for answers a week after they say their daughter was shot in the head while driving on a California highway and remains on life support.

Ronni Newt, 26, was shot multiple times on Dec. 17 while on U.S. Route 101 in the San Fernando Valley, police said.

She was heading to meet up with friends at the time, her parents said.

“She said that she would be back in a couple of hours because we were going to decorate our tree,” her mother, Francine Webster, told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.

California Highway Patrol officers responded to the scene following reports of a traffic collision around 5:15 p.m. They found a black Audi sedan on the shoulder. The driver, Ronni Newt, had been stuck by “multiple gunshots” and was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, California Highway Patrol said.

“This is the call you never want to get. This is the thing as a parent you fear,” Robert Newt, the victim’s father, told KABC. “I pray every night for my kids to be protected.”

Ronni Newt, who was described by her mother as having a “big heart” and a “lot of personality,” was shot in the head and remains in a coma on life support, according to her parents.

“It’s beyond me that something could be said that could actually make you pull out a gun and shoot somebody,” Robert Newt told KABC.

In the week since the shooting, there have been limited leads into what happened and no suspects have been identified, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson said.

Newt’s parents are now urging any witnesses to come forward.

“If you saw anything, anything that was strange, anything out of the ordinary,” Robert Newt told KABC. “If you saw the color of the car, if you saw the make of the car — no clue is too small.”

The two have been by their daughter’s side in the hospital daily since the shooting and are praying for her recovery, while also waiting for answers.

“There are a lot of people that love her that are supporting her, that want to see whoever did this to her apprehended,” Webster told the station.

California Highway Patrol said it is seeking any dash-cam videos and recordings taken between 4:45 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 17, northbound and southbound along US-101 from I-405 to Tampa Avenue.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the CHP Southern Division’s Major Crimes Unit at -323-644-9550 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or lacrimestoppers.org.

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(BLOOMINGTON, Minn.) – A 19-year-old man is dead after a verbal altercation became violent in a Nordstrom branch at the Mall of America on Friday evening.

Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said in a press conference late Friday evening that at approximately 7:50 p.m., an officer heard gunshots near the Nordstrom at the mall. But when the officer went into the store, they found a man who had been shot multiple times.

The officer tried to perform life-saving measures on the victim but the man ultimately succumbed to his injuries, authorities said.

The Mall of America in Minnesota was put on lockdown after the shooting, the Bloomington Police Department said, but was reopened a little over an hour later shortly after 9 p.m. The Nordstrom’s branch remained closed.

After reviewing surveillance footage of the incident, authorities believe a verbal altercation began between two groups of people before it turned physical. During the conflict a man allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the 19-year-old, Hodges said.

It is believed that the entire altercation lasted about 30 seconds, authorities said.

Police are now in the process of identifying the suspects but no arrests have been made at this time, Hodges said.

The victim who died in the shooting has not yet been identified.

“The family here, I feel really bad for them.” Hodges said. “This is before Christmas, and now they’re having to bury one of their loved ones.”

The Nordstrom will remain closed on Saturday but the Mall of America will open as usual.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Friday released its latest batch of transcripts from interviews conducted during the probe.

The 46 transcripts, available on the committee’s website, include the panel’s interviews with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

The transcripts show that Trump called McEnany days after she received her subpoena to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to McEnany’s testimony.

But McEnany told investigators she ignored the call.

“I believe, shortly after I was subpoenaed, I received a call from President Trump, but I did not answer the call,” she said, according to the transcripts. “As I noted to the committee, I have not spoken with him since being subpoenaed. But that’s all to the best of my recollection. I might have received another text I’m forgetting about.”

In its voluminous final report released late Thursday night, the committee said they are aware of “multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,” and that the Justice Department is aware of at least one of those circumstances.

McEnany said she also received a text from General Keith Kellogg and Trump ally Kash Patel after being subpoenaed, and had a phone call with former Trump aide Stephen Miller.

Ivanka Trump, in her testimony, repeatedly told the committee that she could not recall or remember the answers to their questions about her actions and conversations on Jan. 6 — including those with her father.

According to the transcripts, the phrase “don’t recall,” “don’t remember,” or “don’t know” came up more than 300 times amongst her and investigators while she was being interviewed.

Committee members at times appeared skeptical about some of Ivanka’s responses, including when she claimed she never discussed the events of Jan. 6 with her husband, Jared Kushner, as they returned home from the White House that night.

“You just lived through what is understandably very — as you’ve explained, an experience that I think was incredibly traumatic,” committee vice chair Liz Cheney pressed her at one point. “You’d been directly involved in that. It was exceedingly intense. And you haven’t talked to your husband about it since?”

“Ivanka Trump was not as forthcoming as … others about President Trump’s conduct,” the committee noted in its summary report released earlier in the week. “Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements.”

According to the testimony of former White House communications director Hope Hicks, days after the attack on the Capitol she was asked by Trump if Jan 6. was “as bad as everyone says it was?” Hicks told him yes, she testified.

Following Jan. 6, Hicks said she texted a colleague regarding Trump: “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.”

Other interviewees whose transcripts were released Friday include former attorney general Bill Barr, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, Trump-backed attorney Sidney Powell, and Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.

Friday’s release followed the release of three dozen interview transcripts over the last week.

Among those witnesses whose testimony was released earlier this week are former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Infowars host Alex Jones, onetime Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, and Trump-backed attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.

Most of those transcripts contained responses from the witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The committee’s final report, the culmination of its 17-month probe, called on Congress to consider barring Trump from holding further office for leading what it called a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot has jumped to an estimated $510 million.

After players failed to win the top prize on Tuesday night, the amount rose to $510 million, the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot this year. Numbers for the latest prize will be drawn Friday night at 11 p.m. ET.

The cash prize totals $266.8 million.

In July, the jackpot surpassed the massive $1 billion mark for only the third time in the 20-year history of Mega Millions.

The historic $1.34 billion prize was won by an anonymous ticket owner in Des Plaines, Illinois.

The last winning ticket for a Mega Millions jackpot was on Oct. 14. Two ticket winners split a $502 million prize.

Only six Mega Millions jackpots have been won this year. Winning tickets were in California, Florida, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Tennessee.

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(NEW YORK) — A massive storm is bringing blizzard conditions and icy roads to the U.S. right as the holiday travel rush gets underway.

Cancellations, delayed deliveries and outages

Over 4,800 flights are canceled within, into or out of the U.S. so far on Friday.

FedEx and UPS warned that customers could see delays on Christmas deliveries due to the weather’s impact on major shipping hubs.

More than 1.5 million customers are without power in the U.S. and states of emergency have been declared from South Dakota to New York.

“This is really a very serious weather alert,” President Joe Biden warned Thursday. “Please take this storm extremely seriously.”

Danger on the roads

At least one person is dead from a 50-vehicle crash on the Ohio Turnpike, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

State police, including in New York, Illinois and Michigan, are urging people to stay off the roads.

The Michigan State Police said nine semi-tractor trailers crashed on Interstate 94 in Berrien County, where “visibility is near zero.” A seven car pileup was reported in the same area, according to police.

“There are thousands of our first responders, emergency management personnel and utility crews out working in the elements to keep New Yorkers safe today,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Friday. “I’m asking everyone to stay off the roads this evening as conditions will worsen when temperatures drop across the state later today. Bundle up, stay indoors, and stay safe this weekend.”

Latest forecast

The storm barreled across the Midwest and Great Lakes on Thursday.

Blizzard conditions will continue in the Great Lakes into Friday.

Several feet of snow could drop in Michigan and western New York.

Only a few inches of snow is expected for the rest of the Midwest. But the combination of the snow, wind and brutal cold will make travel extremely dangerous throughout the day Friday.

Meanwhile, heavy rain invaded the Northeast Thursday night, flooding roads from Virginia to New York.

The heavy rain is ongoing in New England.

As the temperature plunges on Friday, roads could turn to ice, so those hitting the road for the holidays should use extreme caution.

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(NEW YORK) — A massive winter storm could cause delivery delays ahead of Christmas, with blizzard conditions impacting major shipping hubs and post offices in parts of the United States.

“Significant weather events” are affecting UPS air and ground services, including UPS hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Rockford, Illinois, the company said Friday.

“As a result, some delivery and pickup services in these areas will be affected,” UPS said in a statement. “We will work to ensure the safety of our employees while minimizing effects on service. Contingency plans are in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as conditions permit.”

FedEx has also experienced “substantial disruptions” at its hubs in Indianapolis and Memphis, Tennessee, due to severe winter weather that has “created potentially hazardous operating conditions.”

As a result, packages committed to being delivered by Friday and Saturday could potentially be delayed, the company said.

“We recognize the importance of deliveries this holiday weekend,” FedEx said in a statement Friday. “Contingency plans are in place, and we are prepared to provide the best possible service as conditions allow.”

Severe weather has forced nearly 90 United States Postal Service locations to temporarily close as of midday Friday, according to the agency’s service alerts, including 53 in South Dakota and 20 in North Dakota. Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska are each reporting a handful or so locations that are temporarily closed due to weather.

“Generally, we will continue to attempt all deliveries where accessible and safe to do so,” USPS said in a statement Friday.

The agency is urging people to clear snow and ice from their sidewalks, stairs, porches and mailboxes and maintain a clear path to their mailbox to aid letter carriers during wintry weather.

Amazon has also temporarily closed sites in impacted areas “out of an abundance of caution,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said.

“The health and safety of our employees, customers and the drivers who deliver packages is our top priority which is why we continually monitor weather reports and adjust operations as needed,” Agrait said.

ABC News’ Yoni Mintz contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A massive storm is bringing blizzard conditions and icy roads to the U.S. right as the holiday travel rush gets underway.

Over 3,200 flights are canceled within, into or out of the U.S. so far on Friday.

States of emergency have been declared from South Dakota to New York. At least 750,000 customers are without power across the U.S.

“This is really a very serious weather alert,” President Joe Biden warned Thursday. “Please take this storm extremely seriously.”

Here’s the latest forecast:

The storm barreled across the Midwest and Great Lakes on Thursday.

Blizzard conditions will continue in the Great Lakes into Friday. The blowing snow will cause very low visibility, making travel nearly impossible.

Several feet of snow could drop in Michigan and western New York.

Only a few inches of snow is expected for the rest of the Midwest. But the combination of the snow, wind and brutal cold will make travel extremely dangerous throughout the day Friday.

The Illinois State Police is urging people to stay home.

“The snow, wind and bitter cold are headed our way creating hazardous roadway,” the police tweeted. “If you must travel because of an emergency, please slow down, remain vigilant, and Don’t Crowd the Plow!”

Meanwhile, heavy rain invaded the Northeast Thursday, flooding roads from Virginia to New York. As the temperature plunges on Friday, roads could turn to ice, so those hitting the road for the holidays should use extreme caution.

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(NEW YORK) — A collection of images exclusively obtained by ABC News details what law enforcement says are the recruitment and transportation tactics used by human smugglers to help move migrants across the southwest border and through U.S. cities.

The screen-captured images, provided by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), show suspected smuggling organizers posting what are essentially recruitment ads asking for “serious drivers” in states along the border and portray the task as a test of manhood.

Investigators said these tactics are aimed at recruiting young people in often rural areas looking to make some quick cash.

Multiple ads, as seen in the images, show large stacks of cash and claim to be offering drivers as much as $10,000 to drive between various places in Texas including Eagle Pass, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin.

“We’ve seen a very disturbing trend over the past few years — it’s the use of social media to recruit young people,” HSI lead agent Craig Larrabee told ABC News. “Young people on social media in big cities, whether it be Dallas or San Antonio or Austin — recruited on social media … they’re told to go out into places they’ve never been in very difficult situations on ranches and desolate roads and told to pick up people and drive them north.”

Larrabee said law enforcement often finds mangled vehicles crashed on the side of poorly lit back roads.

“If approached by law enforcement, they’re often told to try to flee and that’s disastrous too,” Larrabee said. “These kids are young, maybe first-year drivers — sometimes they don’t even have a driver’s license. But they certainly very often do not have experience driving on ranch roads.”

Human smuggling investigations require hundreds of hours and a deep dive into what are often vast networks of organized criminals seeking to exploit migrants, Larrabee said. As the HSI special agent in charge for San Antonio, Larrabee oversees the largest single region in the country for investigating human smuggling, which includes 500 miles of Texas-Mexico border.

HSI, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is the country’s principal agency for tracking down smugglers and delivering justice and helping those who find themselves in the throes of illicit operations run by transnational criminal organizations with immense resources. The government believes the stakes have never been higher for ICE HSI as the Biden administration attempts to reign in illegal immigration across the southwest while protecting victims fleeing persecution.

The scope and sophistication of smuggling operations has ramped up exponentially in recent years, according to Homeland Security officials. Fifteen to 20 years ago it was common to find family-operated smuggling rings charging $2,000-3000 per migrant, Larrabee said. But now, much larger organizations are charging upwards of $8,000.

“That’s a huge amount of money,” Larrabee said. “Now, that money is spread out among many different people in the organization — but those numbers continue to go up depending on where you’re coming from too.”

Larrabee said the scale of individual smuggling attempts has increased, with drivers using tractor trailers to move large groups of people at one time.

“If you can put 200 people in the back of a tractor trailer in one run, that’s gonna make you a lot more money [than] to try to find multiple drivers and smaller vehicles, which may be safer in some cases,” Larrabee said.

ICE HSI, along with a variety of law enforcement partners, is responsible for investigating the San Antonio tractor trailer incident earlier this year where 53 people were found dead.

Authorities said it was the largest mass casualty incident ever connected to human smuggling in the U.S. Multiple people have since been charged.

While details remain limited due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, Larrabee said, investigators employ a victim-centered approach when sorting out the level of complicity within a human smuggling scheme. Though migrants may initially agree and pay smugglers to transport them, they are often exploited or physically harmed along the way.

“It’s not always obvious,” he said. “But our approach is to make sure that we’re looking for victims.”

Additional photos and body camera images obtained by ABC News show a thwarted smuggling effort in which 41 migrants were found at a truck stop in San Antonio last year. As non-citizens, all 41 were arrested and processed by Homeland Security officials.

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(GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.) — A Colorado nurse was arrested in October for allegedly sexually assaulting patients and documenting the abuse in cellphone videos and photos. Now, two of his alleged victims are suing his former employer for negligence, claiming the hospital should have known about the alleged misconduct.

Christopher Lambros, 61, was arrested on Oct. 25 on suspicion of sexual assault following a months-long investigation that began after a colleague reported seeing the former nurse at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction appear to take a “selfie” with a nearly naked female patient, according to a police affidavit.

Detectives said at the time there appeared to be at least three victims, based on photographs and videos found on Lambros’ phone. During a hearing last month, prosecutors said they believe there may be a fourth victim dating back to an incident in March 2016.

Two of Lambros’ alleged victims filed a lawsuit in Mesa County District Court this week against St. Mary’s Medical Center and its parent companies, SCL Health and Intermountain Healthcare. The class-action complaint alleges there could be hundreds, if not thousands, of victims during Lambros’ decade-long tenure at the hospital, and said that investigators recovered four terabytes of data from Lambros’ devices.

He is being represented by an attorney from the Colorado public defender office, which does not comment on criminal cases.

That amount of data is “something like 65,000 hours of cellphone footage or 700,000 cellphone photos,” Omeed Azmoudeh, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told ABC Denver affiliate KMGH-TV.

In one video from June 24, police said Lambros can be heard whispering to the camera, “Don’t ever get rid of these videos,” and “You need to keep them forever … this is your Dexter collection” — an apparent reference to the TV series about a serial killer, the complaint noted.

“That confirms that nurse Lambros has maintained a very long and large collection of what he believes to be trophies. And what they really are are scars, scars on our patients,” Azmoudeh told KMGH.

Both plaintiffs, who are identified by their initials due to the sensitive nature of the case, allege that Lambros drugged and then sexually assaulted them while they were patients at St. Mary’s Medical Center over the summer.

One of the plaintiffs, M.C., said she was assaulted on July 9 — the day police say a colleague reported Lambros to a supervisor.

“I was his last victim. And thank God for the nurse that walked in on him,” M.C. told KMGH. “She’s my guardian angel right now.”

The complaint alleges that Lambros drugged and assaulted the second plaintiff, J.V., on several occasions while she was in the hospital’s intensive care unit in late June and early July. After regaining consciousness, J.V. told hospital employees and family members that Lambros “‘was a bad man,’ or something to that effect,” according to the complaint.

“I will never know what happened to me exactly,” J.V. told KMGH. “But yes, there were photos and videos. That’s how they identified me.”

The lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages, alleges the hospital “knew or should have known of Lambros’ misconduct” due to patients under his care being unconscious for “no legitimate medical purpose” and because there was a surveillance camera in M.C.’s room, among other reasons.

After the July 9 incident, the hospital placed Lambros on administrative leave, removed his access to the hospital and reported the matter to law enforcement, Intermountain Healthcare said. He was fired following his arrest.

“What this former nurse is accused of is reprehensible and goes against everything we believe and value at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Patients put their trust in us and should feel safe in our care,” Bryan Johnson, president of St. Mary’s Medical Center, said in a statement this week in response to the lawsuit. “We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our patients from those who intend to cause harm. We are doing everything possible to ensure our patients continue to feel safe and respected while receiving care at St. Mary’s Medical Center.”

Intermountain Healthcare said it cannot offer further details on the matter “out of respect for patient privacy.”

When confronted by police in July, Lambros reportedly denied taking pictures with patients and claimed he was administering an injection for blood clots when the colleague walked in on him, according to the affidavit.

Lambros faces multiple sexual assault charges. He is currently being held on $1 million bond and is due back in court on Jan. 13, 2023, for a review hearing.

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(NEW YORK) — As parts of the country are bracing for a frigid forecast, residents are advised to be on the lookout for turtles, pelicans and other animals impacted by the unseasonably freezing temperatures.

Texas is forecast to see single-digit temperatures into Friday morning. With the extreme cold Thursday night and Friday, sea turtles could become cold-stunned, where they could wash up and become stranded along the shores or be unable to avoid watercraft, David Reese, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Brownsville, Texas, told ABC News.

In extreme cold, turtles experience hypothermia and can no longer move or keep their heads above water. Once they are stunned, it is critical for their survival to remove them from the water or they will drown.

In February 2021, when southern Texas experienced record cold, thousands of endangered turtles had to be rescued from South Padre Island.

Ahead of the cold temperatures this week, the National Weather Service in Brownsville advised residents heading out to South Padre Island to report any stranded or cold-stunned sea turtles to an emergency hotline.

The agency also warned residents to be on the lookout for pelicans, which also struggle with chilly weather and gusty winds. They often land on coastal roadways and bridges when temperatures drop below 30 to 40 degrees and winds increase above 20 mph and “do not avoid oncoming traffic well,” it said.

Fish stocks in Texas’ bays and estuaries are also vulnerable to the extreme cold, with a hard freeze likely to game fish or make them easier to capture. During the February 2021 freeze, an estimated 3.8 million fish were killed on the Texas coast, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In response to the current forecast, the department has issued a temporary closure to saltwater fishing along parts of the coast, effective Saturday, to “protect resources during the upcoming freezing weather conditions,” while advising anglers and coastal residents to report any freeze-related fish kills or cold-stunned fish.

“The high mortality that a freeze can cause may deplete fish stocks for years,” Robin Riechers, director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division, said in a statement Thursday. “Protection of the surviving fish during the few days when they are especially vulnerable to capture would likely shorten the time period for overall recovery of coastal species, especially spotted seatrout.”

Elsewhere, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is asking visitors to the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., to be on the lookout for sea turtles and marine mammals that may be showing signs of cold-stunning.

“While cold-stunning is a natural occurrence, reporting incidents can help protect these animals and the public,” Amanda Weschler, coordinator of Maryland’s Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Response Program, said in a statement Wednesday.

The East Coast is forecast to get hit with a blast of cold air by Saturday morning, when dangerously cold wind chills will make it feel like it is below zero.

Farther south, Southern Florida could also see unseasonably chilly temperatures this weekend — which could mean cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees. The phenomenon is possible when temperatures drop into the 30s and 40s, according to the National Weather Service.

Images of fallen iguanas flooded social media in January 2020, when lows hit the 30s and 40s in the Miami area. The National Weather Service in Miami even issued an advisory at the time on the possibility of falling iguanas — and to let residents know the invasive lizards are not dead but immobile.

This weekend, parts of southern Florida, around Lake Okeechobee, could see temperatures drop into the low to middle 30s, with winds making it feel like it’s in the upper 20s to lower 30s. Elsewhere in the region, lows in the 40s are possible.

“There could be some sites that meet the iguana danger criteria,” Nick Carr, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Miami, told The Palm Beach Post.

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