(WASHINGTON) — Four individuals posing as FBI agents robbed a home in D.C. on Wednesday during an early morning incident, the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed and is actively investigating.
Police said the four suspects entered a home with flashlights and tactical gear, and allegedly used a crowbar to force the front door open. During the armed robbery, the individuals falsely claimed they were FBI agents.
Five individuals were present in the home during the early morning robbery, and two victims of the non-federal raid “were able to flee the residence and contact law enforcement,” the police report read. The robbers stole a $12,000 Rolex watch, a 2017 Audi Q3, $3,300 in cash, two iPhone 11s and two safes, according to the official police incident report.
“The suspects fled the residence in a silver Audi with unknown tags. This case remains under active investigation,” D.C. Police told ABC News.
ABC News requested comment from the FBI, which referred this case to D.C. Police.
(JACKSON COUNTY, Mich.) — Three members of a militia group who were convicted of several crimes in relation to a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were given yearslong prison sentences Thursday.
The three men — Pete Musico, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar — were convicted in October of providing material support for a terrorist act, the most serious charge, as well as firearms charges and membership in a gang. The charge of support for a terrorist act carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Pete Musico, 44, who was the first person to receive his sentencing, was given at least 12 years in prison. Through tears, Musico said before the sentencing he had a “lapse in judgment.” He was sentenced to at least five years for the support of a terrorist act charge and membership in a gang, as well as two years for the firearms charge — all which will run consecutively.
Musico’s son-in-law Joseph Morrison, 28, was sentenced to at least 10 years in prison. He was given at least four years for the two most serious charges and then two years for the weapons charge, all which will run consecutively.
Paul Bellar, 23, received at least seven years in prison. He was given two five-year prison sentences each for support of a terrorist act and gang membership, but will serve them concurrently. He will then serve a two-year sentence for the weapons charge.
“First, I would like to apologize for the highly inappropriate comments that I made in the past,” Bellar said in court before his sentencing. “I would like to apologize to the governor. I am very embarrassed by the comments that I made.”
Whitmer provided taped testimony to the court prior to the sentencing.
Morrison, Musico and Bellar were part of a militia group known as the Wolverine Watchmen, which took part in armed protests at the Michigan state capitol, largely over Whitmer’s strict COVID-19 shutdowns. All three men were photographed at the Capitol, holding rifles, outside Whitmer’s office, during one of those protests in April 2020.
A member of the group eventually turned into a confidential informant in March 2020 after talk turned to harming law enforcement and eventually public officials. Fourteen members of the self-styled militia were arrested in October 2020 and news of the plot to kidnap Whitmer emerged.
On the group’s Facebook page, Bellar “advocated for Governor Whitmer being ‘dragged to the streets and hung’ and threatened to toss a Molotov cocktail at her home after the Governor extended shutdown orders related to the COVID pandemic,” according to prosecutors. Musico allegedly discussed finding the addresses of police officers and killing them and attacking politicians, including Whitmer, in their home, according to prosecutors.
Morrison posted on social media about “coming for” Whitmer, while also talking about trying to “catch that b—- as she came out the emergency exit” during the April 2020 armed protest, per prosecutors.
Other militia members, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., were convicted in federal court of the most serious charges in a retrial in August after a previous trial ended in a hung jury. Fox and Croft face life in prison in sentencing hearings on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, respectively. A judge rejected a request for a retrial last month.
Fox and Croft “intended to kidnap Governor Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids, Michigan” and use “destructive devices to facilitate their plot by harming and hindering the governor’s security detail and any responding law enforcement officers,” according to the Department of Justice.
Two other members of the militia — Kaleb Franks and Ty Garbin — pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to testify in the federal case against Fox and Croft.
The bank of Mill Creak in Washington County, Kansas, following a rupture of the Keystone Pipeline on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022, in this handout published Dec. 9 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. – U.S. EPA
(NEW YORK) — For the first time in a week, crude oil is flowing again through most of the 2,687-mile Keystone Pipeline, but a section of the conduit in Kansas that leaked nearly 600,000 gallons remained shut off as an investigation of what caused the damage continues, officials said.
TC Energy, the Canadian operator of the aboveground pipeline, announced Wednesday evening it is resuming operations of the system that was unaffected by the spill last week in Washington County, Kansas.
“The affected segment of the Keystone Pipeline System remains safely isolated as investigation, recovery, repair and remediation continue to advance,” the company said in a statement Thursday morning.
The company said it is “safely restarting” the section of the pipeline running from Canada to Patoka, Illinois.
“This restart facilitates safe transportation of the energy that customers and North Americans rely on,” TC Energy said in its statement.
At full operation, the pipeline normally pumps about 622,000 barrels, or more than 26 million gallons of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas, Illinois and Oklahoma. A barrel of oil is equivalent to 42 gallons, or about the size of a typical bathtub, according to industry standards.
The pipeline’s damaged “Cushing Extension” which runs from Washington County to Cushing, Oklahoma, remained closed Thursday as the investigation and cleanup goes on, the company said.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, must grant regulatory approval before the Cushing Extension can reopen, according to the company.
The Kansas oil leak is now the biggest in the United States in more than a decade and the largest in the 12-year history of the Keystone Pipeline.
The leak in Kansas was first detected just after 9 p.m. on Dec. 7, about 20 miles south of a pipeline’s Steele City, Nebraska, terminal. The leak in the 36-inch diameter pipeline spilled down a hill and into Mill Creek in Washington County, prompting TC Energy to shut down the entire line.
The spill was “contained” by about 300 people working at the site, according to TC Energy.
It remains unclear what caused the leak or when the repairs to the section of the pipeline will be completed. TC Energy officials said no timeline has been established for restarting the flow of crude oil through the area.
Third-party environmental specialists were among the hundreds of people who responded to clean up the mess using multiple vacuum trucks, booms, and additional resources, the company said. As of Wednesday evening, the company said it had recovered about 127,470 gallons of oil from Mill Creek and rescued wildlife, including a beaver affected by the spill.
The company said air quality monitoring has found “no indication of adverse health or public concerns.”
The leak was the latest in a series of accidents on the pipeline. A federal report released last year showed the conduit recorded 22 accidents between 2010 and 2020 and found the severity of spills has “worsened” in recent years. The report conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed the previous incidents leaked a total of 11,975 barrels of crude oil, or a little over 500,000 gallons.
The report found that four of the biggest Keystone Pipeline oil spills between 2010 and 2020 were caused by issues related to the original design, manufacturing of the pipe or construction of the pipeline.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — For Ember Zelch, an 18-year-old softball player and senior in high school, the anti-trans sports bill that failed to get enough support in the Ohio legislature hits too close to home.
The bill would have banned transgender athletes like Ember from sports that correspond with their gender identity.
“I was the only trans high school female athlete that had been approved to play at that time [when the bill was introduced], so it just felt very much like a personal attack,” Zelch told ABC News.
The bill, which also included an overhaul of the State Board of Education’s powers, failed Thursday in the Ohio legislature. The Senate amended and passed the bill but House representatives voted against it.
“I’m incredibly relieved that Ohio’s transgender athlete ban did not pass,” Ember said. “I’m just happy other trans kids will have access to an experience that has been so affirming for me if that’s what they choose. To all the transgender and nonbinary kids out there, keep being the amazing people I know you are.”
Under the current rules, the Ohio High School Athletic Association has transgender athletes undergo a year of hormone treatment or demonstrate they have no other physical advantages in order to compete.
HB 151 would have required students to play on the sports teams that correlate to the gender listed on their birth certificate. A previous version of the bill would have required examinations of “internal and external reproductive anatomy” for anyone whose gender was questioned.
Gov. Mike DeWine had previously expressed opposition against anti-trans sports bans, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. It was unlikely to pass on DeWine’s watch. Similar bills have been vetoed by Republican governors in Utah and Indiana.
Lawmakers who supported the bill say it protects against any potential advantages a trans athlete may have.
Republican state Rep. Jena Powell has claimed that “female athletes are currently losing championships, scholarship opportunities, medals, education and training opportunities and more to discriminatory policies that allow biological males to compete in girls sports,” according to ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland.
Others say the bill unnecessarily shuts out trans people from participating in sports.
“They … are prevent[ing] exactly what they claim to be trying to prevent, which is a boy deciding tomorrow that they think that they’ll try playing on the girls team – that’s not possible under the current policy,” Maria Bruno, public policy director of Equality Ohio, told ABC News.
Ember said she didn’t get to join the girl’s softball team until the spring of her sophomore year due to the current hormone policy. When she found out she was eligible to play, it was an emotional experience for her entire family.
“It was one of the most amazing days of her life when she finally received that approval,” Minna Zelch, Ember’s mother, told ABC News.
Minna said she knocked on Zelch’s door in tears and showed her the email.
“We both burst into tears, sobbing and holding one another,” she said.
Sports have always been a safe space for Ember.
“It’s not about winning, it’s not about scholarships. It’s about being able to have that community and sense of belonging and being able to have a place to go after school and not think about homework, not think about life for a little while,” Zelch said.
Several prominent athletes, including Olympic gold medalist and former US soccer player Lori Lindsey and WNBA player Brianna Turner, have expressed their support in allowing trans women to play alongside cisgender women.
“What does it say about you, about Ohio, that you would rather openly target and harass a vulnerable group of young people instead of actually listening to women athletes? This is not the Ohio I know and love,” said Lindsey in a statement.
Ohio has moved forward several anti-LGBTQ efforts. The Ohio Board of Education passed a resolution to oppose protections for LGBTQ+ students on Tuesday and Ohio Republicans backed a bill to restrict gender affirming care for trans youth.
(NEW YORK) — Three people are dead in the wake of tornadoes that swept through Louisiana, according to the state Department of Health.
The latest fatality was reported in St. Charles Parish on Wednesday evening. A 56-year-old woman died after a tornado “destroyed her house in the Killona area,” the state Department of Health tweeted, noting that the fatality brings the total number of confirmed storm-related deaths to three.
The woman was found outside her home, and authorities have not yet confirmed her cause of death, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said.
Several other people are seeking treatment at St. Charles Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries in the wake of the storm, Champagne said.
Authorities believe a tornado touched down at 2:21 p.m. near Nelson Coleman Correctional Facility in Killona, St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell said. The tornado then moved north toward Montz, with surveys of preliminary damage suggesting that the worst of the damage is in Killona, Jewell said.
“This community got hit really hard during Ida,” Champagne said. “They didn’t need this again.”
At least 15 to 20 families in Killona have had their homes damaged by the storm, Jewell said.
The sheriff called Wednesday’s storm “horrific and violent,” as authorities continue their search-and-rescue efforts. “They just can’t seem to catch a break,” he said.
Mother and son killed
The deadly tornado in St. Charles Parish comes after a woman and her 8-year-old son were killed when a tornado swept through their town on Tuesday, officials said.
The body of Yoshiko Smith, 30, was found under debris one street over from her destroyed home in Keithville, according to the sheriff’s office and coroner’s office in Caddo Parish.
The body of her son, Nikolus Little, was found in a wooded area near their house, officials said.
Both were killed by blunt force trauma, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
These deadly tornadoes were among at least 42 reported twisters across the South since Tuesday afternoon. More tornadoes are expected on Wednesday overnight and Thursday as the storm moves east.
Four people in New Orleans were injured after a possible tornado touched down near the West Bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of New Orleans Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, told ABC News on Wednesday.
All four who were injured were transported to area hospitals, Arnold said, adding that none were children and all are in stable condition.
Damage assessments continue, Arnold said, but there are currently several downed power lines in Algiers caused by the strong winds of the storm, making it difficult for crews to safely restore power and survey all possible damage.
Officials in St. Bernard Parish, east of the French Quarter, confirmed that a tornado touched down in Arabi and caused significant damage. Police and firefighters were assessing the damage.
Nearly 45,000 customers were without power as of Wednesday night, according to electric company Entergy.
(NEW YORK) — A University of Virginia football player is speaking out after surviving a shooting that killed three of his teammates, telling ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan he’s “doin’ it for my brothers I lost.”
Running back Michael Hollins Jr. said he and another teammate initially got off the bus on Nov. 13 when they heard gunshots break out, but then he realized they were the only two who had been able to run away.
“It was just literally an instinct and a reaction to go back,” he told Strahan in an interview airing Thursday morning on Good Morning America.
Hollins said he was “just three or four steps on the bus” when he saw the suspect coming off.
“I felt so hopeless and so powerless in that moment,” he said. “I felt him hit me in my back. But I just, I knew I wasn’t goin’ down without a fight.”
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is accused of opening fire on the loaded charter bus, killing three football players and injuring two other classmates. He’s charged with three felony counts of second-degree murder and two felony counts of malicious wounding, among others, and has yet to enter a plea.
Hollins thinks he was hit in the small intestines and kidney, he said.
“By the grace of God, it missed my spine by I think 2 centimeters or something like that,” he said.
Hollins said he went straight into surgery and didn’t find out about his teammates who were killed — wide receivers Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler and linebacker D’Sean Perry — until two days later.
“I’ve never cried like that before. I mean, I really, I lost a brother that day,” Hollins said, saying he loved his teammates “with all my heart,” but Perry — “that was my brother. So, it was tragic hearin’ that he was gone.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Hollins said he’s sharing his emotions and isn’t afraid to tell his friends or teammates “I love you” and “‘lookin’ forward to seeing you again,’ and really meanin’ it now.”
“I’m still doin’ it for the people I love, for the people that were on that bus. And everything I do from here on will be, you know, in their name, in their light. And I just want to do as much as I can to keep their, you know, their flame lit,” he added.
(CHANDLER, Ariz.) — An Amazon contract worker was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a gunman allegedly opened fire at an Amazon facility in Arizona Wednesday, according to police.
The alleged gunman was shot and killed by a second Amazon contract worker who returned fire, investigators said.
The incident occurred in the parking lot of an Amazon Flex facility in Chandler, Arizona, around 9:30 a.m. local time, police said.
The unidentified suspect fired multiple rounds at one of the contracted workers before a second contract worker returned fire, Sgt. Jason McClimans of the Chandler Police Department told reporters at a news conference.
The unidentified wounded worker was taken to a local hospital in “life-threatening condition,” according to McClimans. The suspect, who was not employed by Amazon, was declared dead at the scene, police said.
The second unidentified contracted worker who fired at the suspect was cooperating with the investigation, McClimans said.
“We do not know what led up to this,” he said. “We believe this was confined to one suspect only.”
The Amazon facility and local schools were locked down when the shooting took place, according to police.
“We weren’t sure if this was an active shooter, but within 20 minutes, we were able to lift those lockdowns,” McClimans said.
A spokesman from Amazon told ABC News that operations at the facility were suspended following the incident and all employees and partners were sent home with pay.
“We’re deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence in our parking lot. We’re working closely with law enforcement as they investigate and are focused on supporting our team during this difficult time,” Richard Rocha, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Prosecutors played the 911 call Paul Pelosi made the night he was violently attacked in his and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home in court on Wednesday, as they presented new evidence while arguing to have the case go to trial.
In the ongoing hearing in San Francisco Superior Court Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors first submitted the 911 call Paul Pelosi made after authorities say David DePape broke into the couple’s home early on Oct. 28.
“Are the Capitol police around? I got a problem. A gentleman just came into my house, waiting for my wife to come home,” Paul Pelosi could be heard saying on the call.
When the operator asked for his name, he responded,” “Paul Pelosi. He told me to put down the phone.”
“What is his name?” the operator asked.
Another man could then be heard shouting into the speakerphone, “David DePape.”
DePape, 42, from Richmond, California, is facing multiple state charges, including attempted murder, residential burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, for allegedly attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer at the couple’s San Francisco home.
In addition to the 911 call, prosecutors showed body-camera footage from the responding officers for the first time and presented the hammer they said was used in the attack.
One of the officers who responded testified that DePape was rambling about lying Democrats, while an investigator who took the stand said she interviewed Paul Pelosi after the attack, during which he said DePape woke him up, asking, “Where’s Nancy?”
During an arraignment last month, DePape pleaded not guilty to the charges through his public defender and denied all allegations.
DePape also faces federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty to those charges last month and remains held without bail.
According to the federal complaint, DePape allegedly used a hammer to break into the Pelosi residence in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco just before 2 a.m. local time on Oct. 28. The intruder then went upstairs, where 82-year-old Paul Pelosi was asleep, and demanded to talk to “Nancy,” according to the complaint.
Paul Pelosi reportedly told DePape that he needed to use the bathroom, allowing him to get his cellphone and call 911. Two police officers arrived minutes later and entered the home, encountering DePape and Paul Pelosi struggling over a hammer, police said. The officers told the men to drop the hammer, at which time DePape allegedly gained control of the hammer and swung it, striking Paul Pelosi in the head.
Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands, though he is expected to make a full recovery, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson said following the attack.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department announced a landmark civil rights settlement Wednesday with the city of Hesperia, California, and its sheriff’s department over allegations they illegally discriminated against Black and Latino renters.
Under the terms of the settlement, which requires final sign off from a federal judge, the city and sheriff’s department must pay nearly $1 million and fully repeal a crime-free housing ordinance that mandates landlords to evict those who police reported had been involved in criminal activity, even if the offense was minor or if it didn’t result in formal charges, an arrest or conviction.
An analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that under such programs, Black renters are almost four times more likely to be evicted and Latino renters are 29% more likely to be evicted than white renters.
The agreement is the first-ever settlement for the Justice Department in a case challenging such an ordinance under the federal Fair Housing Act and could put on notice the approximately 2,000 other communities around the country who have enacted similar forms of ‘crime-free’ programs, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
The Justice Department first sued the city in 2019 over the ordinance, singling out comments by one city councilmember who said it was necessary to correct a “demographical problem” in Hesperia as its Black and Latino populations were increasing. Another council member was quoted saying its purpose was to get landlords to remove “blight” from their rental units and compared it to calling in an exterminator to kill roaches.
Under the agreement, the city and sheriff’s department will agree to pay $950,000, with the bulk of the settlement — $670,000 — going to those who reported harm from the ordinance.
Other funds will go toward the payment of civil penalties, funding for affirmative marketing to promote fair housing in Hesperia; funding for partnerships with community-based organizations, and more, according to the DOJ.
In a call with reporters Wednesday, Clarke described in stark detail the impact the policy had on members of the community.
“This meant evictions of entire families for conduct involving one tenant or even guests, or estranged family members,” Clarke said. “It meant evictions of the survivors of domestic violence. It meant evictions in the absence of concrete and real evidence of criminal activity.”
In one case, Clarke said, a Black woman living in the city called the police repeatedly to come to her home because she did not feel safe with her boyfriend. When the sheriff’s department notified the landlord about calls and threatened the landlord with a misdemeanor, the landlord forced the woman and her children out of their home and, unable to afford long-term stay in a local motel — the woman had to uproot her entire family and leave behind a house full of furniture to relocate across the country, Clarke said.
The consent order will remain in effect over the next five years as DOJ continues to monitor the city’s compliance, and the sheriff’s department will additionally be required to conduct anti-discrimination training for deputies and other staff who interact with the city’s residents.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — After just five days of testimony, the jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Aaron Dean.
Dean is accused of fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, at her Fort Worth home.
Dean was responding to a call to check on Jefferson’s home on Oct. 12, 2019, around 2:30 a.m. because a door was left open to the house.
According to body camera footage and Dean’s testimony, he did not park near the home, knock at the door or announce police presence at any time while on the scene.
Dean testified that he suspected a burglary in progress due to the messiness inside the home. When Dean entered the backyard, body camera footage shows Dean looking into one of the windows of the home.
Jefferson and her now-11-year-old nephew, Zion, were playing video games when they heard a noise, according to Zion, who testified in the case. Jefferson grabbed her gun before approaching the window, Zion testified. Police officials have said Jefferson was within her rights to protect herself.
In body camera footage, Dean can be heard shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and firing one shot through the window.
According to the prosecution, it was one minute and 17 seconds between when Dean arrived on the scene to when he fatally shot Jefferson. A forensics video expert testified that it was half a second between the start of Dean’s commands and when he shot Jefferson.
Dean resigned from the police department before his arrest. Fort Worth Chief of Police Ed Kraus has said Dean was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies.
For prosecutors, at the core of the trial were questions about whether Dean saw a gun in Jefferson’s hand, thought he was in a life or death situation or could have done something differently in the moments leading up to the shooting.
In closing statements, prosecutors focused on Jefferson’s innocence as a person defending her nephew and home.
“You can be in your own home, owning a weapon, owning a gun and you can protect yourself in your home. That’s one of the most fundamental rights. That’s the reason we all feel so safe,” said prosecutor Ashlea Deener. “Atatiana Jefferson didn’t commit any criminal acts by walking up to the window with her gun thinking someone was outside. It’s what many of us would do if we were in our house in the middle of the night in the back bedroom and we hear somebody outside.”
Defense attorney Bob Gill fought back against Deener’s claims in his closing arguments.
“She had those rights up until the moment she pointed the firearm at a Fort Worth police officer,” Gill said. “It’s a crime and it’s an unlawful act.”
Prosecutor Dale Smith responded by reminding the jury that Dean said on the stand that his actions that night were “bad police work” in a final statement to the jury. During his testimony, Dean agreed there were things he could have done differently.
Dean had testified that he did not tell his partner, officer Carol Darch, about a gun in the house until he found it inside. Darch had run into the home to help those inside, Darch and Dean testified.
“If there was a real threat inside that window, do you think he would have just sat by the window?” said Smith. “Do you think he might have pushed Darch out of the way, got back, retreated to another position? No, he’s standing there because he wasn’t sure what was on the other side where he just shot.”
“What officer would allow one of his partners to run into the house where they thought a burglary was happening without saying there’s a gun in there?” Smith continued.
Throughout the trial, the defense focused on Dean’s emotions and perception of danger.
Dean also testified on the stand in his own defense, describing the moments leading to the fatal shooting, as well as his thoughts during it.
