(BOULDER, Colo.) — A suspect police say was trying to hit people with his truck in a Boulder, Colorado, park Tuesday morning has been charged with attempted murder.
Boulder 911 received its first emergency call at around 6:26 a.m. CT, with the caller reporting that someone was driving through Boulder’s Central Park trying to run people over, police said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Officers arrived on the scene in about a minute, but the truck was gone.
Following a search involving officers and the police department’s drone team, the vehicle was eventually located in a parking lot with significant damage, according to the authorities. Significant damage was done to the park, also, officials said.
After recovering the vehicle, authorities began looking into who the owner of the vehicle was. Patrol officers located the driver on foot and confirmed the man was the owner of the vehicle, police said.
Suspect Bruce A. Alvey was arrested by police later in the morning. He has been charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to the police. ABC News was unable to locate a legal representative for the suspect.
Between the time of the park incident and his arrest, the suspect broke into an animal hospital, authorities said. He was injured in the process, police said. They are currently looking into charges related to the alleged burglary.
Police are also investigating charges of driving under the influence of narcotics, in particular methamphetamine, police said.
No one was hurt in the incident, Boulder Police said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Despite some incredibly close calls, the driver narrowly missed hitting multiple people who ran to get away,” their post read. “The suspect drove in and out of the park several times and struck multiple pieces of property, enough to require the city to close the park with fencing for repairs.”
At the news conference Tuesday afternoon, Boulder’s Police Chief Maris Harold, said the incident was “really scary.”
“The thing that’s scary about this is if people would have been sleeping in their sleeping bags this morning, there would have been mass casualties at this event,” Harold also said, adding that the driver ran over some empty sleeping bags.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Temple University acting president JoAnne A. Epps died suddenly after falling ill at a memorial service at the university Tuesday afternoon, the school announced. She was 72.
Epps became unwell while attending the memorial service for Charles L. Blockson, a curator emeritus of the Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple, who died in June, according to Temple University.
She experienced a “sudden episode,” Dr. Daniel del Portal said at a press conference. She was attended to by emergency service personnel and was transported to Temple University Hospital where resuscitation efforts continued, del Portal said. Epps was pronounced dead around 3:15 p.m., the school said.
“There are no words that can describe the gravity and sadness of this loss. President Epps was a devoted servant and friend who represented the best parts of Temple,” Mitchell L. Morgan, chair on the school’s board of trustees, Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer and Gregory N. Mandel, senior vice president and provost, said in a letter on the school’s website.
They added, “She spent nearly 40 years of her life serving this university, and it goes without saying her loss will reverberate through the community for years to come.”
Mandel said he and Epps became friends when he joined the school in 2007, and she was a mentor to him and for other people.
“This a tragic loss, but we know that JoAnne passed away doing something that she loved,” Mandel said.
Temple University’s board of trustees voted unanimously to appoint Epps as acting president in April, according to The Temple News.
“Pledge to you, I’m going to do my utmost best to make this place continue on the trajectory that it’s on,” Epps said, according to The Temple News. “This is a great institution. I have loved being a part of it. I’ve loved the friends I’ve made as I look around the room and just think about the family feel of Temple and I’m really honored to take on this role and I will look forward to working with all of you in the year.”
(TENNESSEE COLONY, Texas) — A Texas man convicted of murdering two elderly women and suspected of killing nearly two dozen people total was found dead in his prison cell Tuesday following an attack by his cellmate, officials said.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials found Billy Chemirmir, 50, dead in his cell at the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony, Texas, early Tuesday morning, the department said.
His cellmate, who is currently serving a murder sentence out of Harris County, was the assailant, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
No further details, including the manner of death or the cellmate’s name, have been released amid an ongoing investigation by the state’s Office of Inspector General.
Chemirmir, who was a citizen of Kenya, worked as a home health care aide in several cities in north Texas before being accused of murdering his vulnerable patients and stealing their valuables.
He had been indicted on 22 capital murder charges in Dallas and Collin counties. Last year, he was found guilty of capital murder by two separate Dallas County juries for the 2018 deaths of Lu Thi Harris, 81, and Mary Brooks, 87.
In Collin County, where he was indicted on nine capital murder charges, prosecutors said last month they would not seek the death penalty in their cases, following Chemirmir’s two convictions.
“I won’t be mourning the murder of convicted serial killer Billy Chemirmir. Rather, my thoughts today are with the families of the precious ladies he murdered,” Collin County Criminal District Attorney Greg Willis said in a statement Tuesday. “These families have been through more than we can imagine, and I pray that someday they can find peace.”
(MONT BELVIEU, Texas) — A Black Texas high school student has been facing an in-school suspension (ISS) for weeks because school officials said that his dreadlocks violated their dress and grooming code.
Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been sitting on a small stool at school every school day since Aug. 31, back aching, as he receives his schoolwork online or through a classmate, according to his mother Darresha George.
“Every day my son comes home with tears in his eyes. He’s frustrated; he’s outraged, aggravated, and it’s breaking him down mentally, physically and emotionally,” Darresha George told ABC News. “I have to see him taking ibuprofen because his back hurts.”
Darryl George’s schoolwork and grades are being affected because he is not getting the benefit of complete instructions from his teachers to complete his assignments, according to his mother.
“He’s not in a class setting to where he’s sitting in front of the teacher explaining it to him like the other kids,” his mother said. “So, now he has to figure it out for himself.”
Texas enacted the CROWN Act on Sept. 1, making it unlawful to discriminate against “protective hairstyles” in schools, Allie Booker, Darresha George’s attorney, told ABC News.
“Any student dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district, including a student dress or grooming policy for any extracurricular activity, may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race,” according to the CROWN Act. “‘Protective hairstyle’ includes braids, locks and twists.'”
The CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” was passed with a bipartisan vote in the Texas legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in May.
“Barbers Hill [High School] is showing their racism once again, showing their complete defiance of Texas law,” Dr. Candice Matthews, the Statewide Vice Chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats and a supporter of the George family, told ABC News. “You don’t have to like the law, but you have to follow it because, one, we do not tell white people how to wear their hair. So, you’re not going to disenfranchise our people and tell us how to wear our hair.”
The Barbers Hill Independent School District told ABC News that their dress and grooming code does not conflict with the CROWN Act.
“The Barbers Hill ISD Dress and Grooming Code permits protective hairstyles, but any hairstyle must be in conformity with the requirement that male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes,” the school district told ABC News in a statement. “Further, male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down.”
The school district is making an example out of Darryl George within a day of the CROWN Act’s being implemented simply to prove a point and express their disapproval of the law, Booker told ABC News.
“People do stuff like that, you know, whenever there’s a new law in place,” Booker said. “They try to thumb their nose at the law by breaking it and then arguing that a law doesn’t cover it. So that’s all they’re doing.”
Booker added that the family plans to file a discrimination lawsuit and an injunction to get him out of ISS if the school continues to punish him.
A federal version of the CROWN Act passed the House but was blocked by the Senate in 2022. Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), the lead sponsor of the bill, told ABC News that it is time to pass the federal CROWN Act to stop this type of discrimination from happening again.
“It’s sad to see that some people still believe protective Black hairstyles are ‘unprofessional,'” Coleman told ABC News in a statement. “It’s infuriating that school officials would impose those beliefs on the children in their charge, negatively impacting their learning. Texas has passed their version of the CROWN Act to end this practice and I hope to see Mr. George quickly return to regular classes.”
Darresha George told ABC News that the school district is trivializing her son’s dreadlocks by labeling them as a violation of the district’s dress code. His locks are a representation of his culture and spirituality, Darresha George said.
“It’s part of his roots, part of his ancestors,” his mother said. “At the ends of his hair, we have his dad’s hair, his stepdad’s hair, and his brother’s hair actually sewn into his locks. So, cutting that off is cutting them off from him.”
(ORLANDO) — An Amazon delivery driver was dropping off a package at a Florida home when she was bitten by a highly venomous eastern diamondback rattlesnake, authorities said.
The woman was hospitalized in “very serious condition,” the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.
The incident took place Monday evening in Palm City, about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach. The snake, which was coiled up near the front door, bit the driver as she put the customer’s package down and she “immediately became ill,” the sheriff’s office said.
The victim was last listed in serious but stable condition, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said Tuesday.
“Our thoughts are with the driver and we hope for a full recovery after this frightening incident,” Amazon spokesperson Branden Baribeau said in a statement. “Together, with the Delivery Service Partner, we’re looking into the circumstances surrounding this incident and continue to make sure that drivers understand they should not complete a delivery if they feel unsafe.”
The highly venomous eastern diamondback is very common to the area, the sheriff’s office said.
The snakes are brown, yellow or tan, and they have black, brown and cream diamonds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
They’re an average of 3 to 6 feet long. When coiled, an eastern diamondback “can strike up to two-thirds its body length to inject its prey with venom,” the FWC said.
To avoid a rattlesnake bite, sheriff’s office spokesperson Christine Weiss recommended to always look down while walking.
“If you are scrolling through a phone while walking or at all distracted, you might not see them until it’s too late,” she told ABC News via email.
“Rattlesnakes will typically rattle, or make a distinctive defensive noise if they are agitated, feel threatened or about to strike,” she added. “So if you are wearing ear pods and not listening to the outside element, you will not likely hear that warning.”
“Use caution when moving planters, pots, pieces of lumber or even tree limbs,” Weiss continued. “Expect them. They are here and there a lot of them.”
Tamir Kalifa for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(LAHAINA, Hawaii) — West Maui, an area devastated by wildfires that ravaged the historic town of Lahaina less than two months ago, is set to reopen for visitors on Oct. 8. Lahaina will remain fully closed to the public until further notice, according to the Hawaiian Tourism Authority.
The decision to open up for tourism has prompted outrage from some residents, many of whom remain displaced and have yet to pick up the pieces of their destroyed homes.
Jeremy Delos Reyes, one of the roughly 7,500 displaced residents, is living with his family at a nearby hotel and is angered to learn that the state is planning for the return of visitors to the disaster area. Reyes has lived on Maui for 48 years.
“Why am I stuck at a resort right now every day, waking up wondering if me and my wife and my family are going to get kicked out because tourists need a place to stay?” he told ABC News in an interview.
He continued: “Why do these displaced people that lost family members — lost everything they own — have to go to work now and put on a smile to serve cocktails, to bring towels, to clean their room? How would that make you feel if you lost your family and everything you own?”
Oct. 8 will mark two months since the wildfires began their destruction.
Displaced residents say they have yet to revisit their old homes, as they await clearance from federal and local agencies to clear the areas as safe from hazardous materials and poor air quality. The disaster area is restricted to authorized personnel only, and many areas still don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Many children from the region are still being transported to schools outside of West Maui, with expectations that schools will start up around Oct. 13 if they prove to be safe for return.
Jordan Ruidas, a resident and community organizer, has created a petition to delay the reopening of West Maui that has gathered more than 5,000 signatures.
“With it being exactly two months after the tragic fires … it seemed like a slap in the face honestly,” she told ABC News in an interview.
Ruidas said she and others know that West Maui will eventually need to open, “but what’s concerning to me is our government officials have not hit certain benchmarks that a lot of us working class, Lahaina locals feel like we need before we can even start to get back to some kind of normalcy.”
However, some business owners in the region are anxious for economic support.
Noah Drazkowski, who was born and raised in West Maui and owns a local business, said his feelings are mixed about the reopening. The majority of his income comes from tourism, he says. The impact of the fire has compounded on top of the economic hit the COVID-19 pandemic had on his business.
“Being born and raised here, it’s difficult to want to reopen and that tourism is going to come back in,” Drazkowski said. “But as a business owner, I know that we need it. I know that our families need it. You know, we need to be able to get back to some kind of normalcy to help push forward.”
Tourism accounts for a large chunk of Maui County’s economy. According to the Maui Economic Development Board, approximately 70% of every dollar is generated directly or indirectly by the visitor industry. The board calls tourism the “economic engine” for the County of Maui.
Some residents don’t want it to be this way, arguing that the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands has impacted the ownership of land and water for Native Hawaiians. Maui has been under water restrictions in recent years amid an ongoing drought and has been facing a housing crisis, as costs skyrocket.
As residents continue to grieve, some fear the devastation will be exploited by visitors gawking at the tragedy.
Those who do decide to come when West Maui opens, residents ask that they be respectful of the grieving city. Drazkowski recommends volunteering in the recovery efforts while on vacation if possible.
“We went through a crisis. We went through a natural disaster. A lot of families are still grieving and still processing and they don’t really want to see, they don’t really want to see anyone on the side of the road trying to take pictures of what happened to their home,” said Drazkowski.
(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Police have released body camera footage involving the arrest of an Alabama high school band director who was shocked with a stun gun after officers say he refused to comply with orders to stop playing and resisted arrest.
The incident occurred Thursday at P.D. Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, following a game against Minor High School.
Officers were attempting to clear the stadium following the game when the altercation occurred with the Minor High School’s band director, according to the Birmingham Police Department.
“Officers approached Minor High School’s band director and then began asking him to get his band to stop performing,” the department said in a statement. “Minor’s band director did not comply with multiple officers’ requests to stop his band from performing; he instructed his band to continue performing.”
The nearly 8-minute video shows several officers approach the band director, Johnny Mims, as the band is performing. Mims repeatedly says, “Get out of my face,” as officers tell him to tell the band to stop, the video shows.
“Cut it! We got to go,” a sergeant says.
“I know. We’re fixing to go. This is our last song,” Mims says in response.
After an officer says something to the effect of Mims going to jail, Mims gives a thumbs up and says, “That’s cool.”
The band continues to play as officers order them to leave, and the sergeant yells to put Mims in handcuffs.
While attempting to handcuff the director after the band stopped performing, an officer can be heard saying, “I’m fixing to tase you.”
Another officer says, “He hit the officer, he got to go to jail.”
“I did not swing on the officer, man,” Mims says in response.
While attempting to detain Mims, an officer deployed his stun gun on him three times, the video shows.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue personnel treated Mims at the scene before officers transported him to a local hospital, per police protocol.
Upon being discharged, Mims was booked at the Birmingham City Jail on disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest charges early Friday. He was bonded out within hours, online jail records show. Police allege Mims refused to place his hands behind his back and pushed an officer during the altercation.
The incident remains under investigation by the Birmingham Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, a department spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday.
The Birmingham police chief has met with the Birmingham mayor and superintendents from both school districts regarding the incident, a department spokesperson said upon releasing the footage.
Mims’ attorney, Juandalynn Givan, has called for the officers involved to be placed on administrative leave “until further investigation,” adding the incident “highlights the urgent need for police reform, training and the protection of every citizen’s rights.”
“This incident is an alarming abuse of power and a clear violation of our client’s civil rights,” Givan, who is also a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, said in a statement. “It is unacceptable for law enforcement to engage in home rule in the field of play or with regard to band activities unless there is a significant threat to the safety of the general public. These matters should be addressed by school district administrators or other leaders with expertise to de-escalate situations like this.”
Givan’s office said they plan to pursue legal action and “seek damages for the pain and suffering endured by the band director.”
Minor High School is in the Jefferson County school district. District leadership is currently reviewing the video, Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said.
“My initial reaction is sadness,” Gonsoulin said in a statement. “It’s extremely upsetting to me that our students, our children, had to witness that scene. Nothing is more important than their well-being.”
Counselors have been made available to students, he said.
Gonsoulin added he is not commenting further pending the review of the incident.
(HAHNVILLE, La.) — A missing kayaker from Louisiana has been arrested for faking his own death by drowning in an apparent bid to dodge rape charges, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Melvin Phillip Emde, 41, was arrested by authorities in Georgia over a month after his son, Seth, allegedly reported him missing.
Emde’s son allegedly told police his father fell out of a kayak and drowned while on the Mississippi River in Hahnville, Louisiana, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
After he was reported missing, detectives learned that Emde had pending charges of indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a child by an adult in North Carolina. He was due in court just one day after being reported missing, authorities said.
“We immediately became quite suspicious that this may have been a faked accidental drowning and death in order for Mr. Emde to escape charges in Brunswick County, North Carolina. However, we could not publicly expose our suspicions for fear of tipping him off,” St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said in a statement.
The sheriff’s office discovered Emde was wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of bail. Further investigation revealed that Emde purchased two prepaid phones at a Walmart on the day of his alleged drowning, the sheriff’s office said.
St. Charles Parish sheriff’s detectives worked with authorities in North Carolina and the U.S. Marshals Service to track the phones. Police said Emde only used one of the phones and turned it on for short periods of time.
Detectives initially focused their search on Oklahoma until it became obvious that the phones were no longer being used.
On Sunday, a Georgia State Highway Patrol officer attempted to stop a motorcycle for not having a license plate, but the motorcycle fled and ultimately crashed.
The driver attempted to flee on foot but was taken into custody. The driver gave police a false name, but it was discovered that he was Melvin Emde when he was fingerprinted, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Now it’s time for Mr. Emde to face the music for his charges in North Carolina,” Champagne said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — A kilogram of fentanyl was stored on top of children’s play mats used for napping at the New York City day care where a 1-year-old boy died from exposure to the drug, according to a new federal criminal complaint.
Day care operator Grei Mendez and tenant Carlisto Acevedo Brito are now facing federal charges of narcotics possession with intent to distribute resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death, according to federal prosecutors.
Mendez and Brito were initially arrested on state charges, including murder, manslaughter and assault, following the “reckless, depraved” death of 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici, prosecutors said.
Mendez called 911 on Friday afternoon reporting that several children were unresponsive at her facility in the Bronx.
Three other children, ranging in age from 8 months to 2 years, were hospitalized and treated with Narcan and are now recovering, police said. An analysis of urine from one of the victims confirmed the presence of fentanyl, officials said.
Since July, Mendez and Brito maintained large quantities of fentanyl “despite the daily presence of children, including infants,” the complaint said.
Mendez and Brito were arraigned on the state charges Sunday night and held without bail.
Mendez’s attorney said she was unaware drugs were being stored in her day care by Brito, her husband’s cousin, to whom she was renting a room for $200 a week.
Authorities are still seeking Mendez’s husband for questioning.
City health inspectors conducted a surprise inspection of the facility on Sept. 6 and did not find any violations, according to City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.
“I’m very sorry, but one of the things that my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl. But maybe they need to,” Vasan said at a news conference Monday evening.
(NEW YORK) — The gun used in the ambush killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy appears to have been purchased legally, without raising any red flags regarding the suspected gunman’s mental health, two law enforcement officials briefed on the probe told ABC News.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspect, Kevin Salazar, had an officially documented history of psychiatric problems and whether that would have or should have triggered red flags that might have stopped him from buying a gun.
Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, 30, was on duty, in uniform and in his patrol car when he was shot while stopped at a red light outside the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station Saturday night. The motive remains unclear.
Salazar, 29, was arrested on Monday.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News Monday night that Salazar confessed to investigators.
Salazar’s mother told ABC News that she had reported concerns over her son’s mental health to law enforcement, but it remains unclear whether any such reports would have risen to a level that should have blocked her son from being able to legally purchase a gun. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has not commented on whether Salazar’s mother contacted them about her son’s mental health.
Clinkunbroomer was “ambushed by a coward,” Sheriff Robert Luna said Monday.
“Ryan’s family will never see him again,” the sheriff said, overcome with emotion.
Clinkunbroomer, an eight-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, “was a dedicated, hard-working deputy sheriff,” Clinkunbroomer’s family said in a statement read on Monday by the sheriff.
“Ryan was recently engaged to the love of his life,” his family said, and he made “the ultimate sacrifice.”
