(BUENA, NJ) — Two people were injured and another four remain unaccounted for after a house exploded in New Jersey on Thursday, police said.
Police responded to reports of a house fire around 10:35 a.m. ET in the South Jersey town of Buena, according to Franklin Township Police Chief Matt DeCesari. The incident was confirmed to have been an explosion, he said.
An infant was removed from the residence and was being transported to a burn center in Pennsylvania, DeCesari said. A woman believed to be in her 20s or 30s was also taken to a burn center with non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
Four people remain unaccounted for following the blast, DeCesari said.
“We have not determined where these four people are,” he said.
The individuals are believed to be mostly from one family, though a friend may have been staying at the house, DeCesari said.
Several houses on the block sustained damage in the explosion but all residents have been evacuated and there were no additional injuries, DeCesari said.
The investigation is being deemed a criminal one at this early stage, DeCesari said.
“It was an explosion, we don’t know what caused it,” DeCesari told reporters at a press briefing Thursday afternoon. “We are treating it as a criminal investigation at this point until we determine otherwise.”
Multiple fire departments responded to the scene and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also en route, DeCesari said.
Footage from the scene showed the home had been reduced to debris. A person who works nearby told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI he heard a loud “boom” and felt the explosion, then saw smoke coming from the house.
“This is just something that’s very tragic,” DeCesari said. “This is a small community. Everybody seems to know each other. And when you have an incident like this, it really hits everyone.”
(BUENA, NJ) — Two people are dead and another two remain missing after a house exploded in New Jersey on Thursday, police said.
A young child and a teenager also suffered burn injuries in the explosion, police said.
Police responded to reports of a house fire around 10:35 a.m. ET in the South Jersey town of Buena, according to Franklin Township Police Chief Matthew DeCesari. The incident was confirmed to have been an explosion, he said.
A 1-year-old girl was flown to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia in critical condition, DeCesari said. A 16-year-old girl was also flown to the hospital and is in stable condition, he said.
Four other people are believed to have been in the house at the time of the explosion, based on interviews with family members — a 2.5-year-old boy, a 3.5-year-old girl, a 52-year-old man and a 73-year-old man, DeCesari said. Two bodies have been recovered from the rubble, though authorities are unable to determine their ages, genders or races, he said.
“We are working diligently to shift through that rubble and attempt to locate the other two individuals,” DeCesari said.
The relationships of the victims is unclear, DeCesari said.
Several houses in the immediate area sustained damage in the explosion; residents were evacuated and there were no additional injuries, DeCesari said.
The investigation is being deemed a criminal one at this early stage, DeCesari said.
“It was an explosion, we don’t know what caused it,” DeCesari told reporters at a press briefing Thursday afternoon. “We are treating it as a criminal investigation at this point until we determine otherwise.”
Multiple fire departments responded to the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI and New Jersey State Police are also assisting in the investigation, DeCesari said.
“All indications are this thing went up very fast and it was a lot to try to fight,” DeCesari said of the fire.
Footage from the scene showed the home had been reduced to debris. A person who works nearby told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI he heard a loud “boom” and felt the explosion, then saw smoke coming from the house.
“This is just something that’s very tragic,” DeCesari said. “This is a small community. Everybody seems to know each other. And when you have an incident like this, it really hits everyone.”
Police are asking the public to share any cell phone or Ring camera footage captured prior to or during the explosion.
(NEW YORK) — A New York City Fire Department emergency medical technician was arrested and charged with stealing $600 from an undercover investigator posing as a sick patient.
The investigator went undercover after receiving allegations of theft involving the EMT, according to the NYC Department of Investigation.
Luis Carrillo Jr., 43, was charged with felony grand larceny in the fourth degree and misdemeanor petit larceny and official misconduct. Upon conviction, the felony is punishable with up to four years in prison and the misdemeanors are punishable with a year in prison.
Carrillo was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday night and released on his own recognizance.
He is scheduled to appear in court again on Oct. 6.
“This defendant took an oath to provide emergency medical assistance with diligence and compassion, but instead used his position to steal from an individual who appeared to be in need of care, according to the charges. The disgraceful charged conduct stands in stark contrast to the FDNY’s countless EMTs who act with honor and integrity every day, delivering critical care to New Yorkers in need,” Jocelyn Strauber, the commissioner of NYC’s Department of Investigation, said in a statement.
The undercover test was conducted around 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday when an investigator posed as a sick patient in need of medical attention. Under DOI surveillance, the undercover investigator was then transferred in an ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.
The undercover investigator saw the EMT remove his wallet while in the ambulance, which contained $1,100 in marked bills. Once the investigator was dropped off at the hospital, he discovered that $690 was missing from his wallet, according to the DOI.
DOI stopped the ambulance after it left the hospital and was able to recover $600 in marked bills from the EMT’s right pocket and arrested him. Investigators did not find the other missing $90.
Carrillo, who was suspended upon his arraignment, has been an EMT since October 2012.
The DOI thanked Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh for the department’s “assistance” with the sting operation.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is set to appear in federal court on Thursday on charges in connection with his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump was charged with four counts as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
The former president has been summoned to appear before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya in Washington, D.C., for his arraignment on his third indictment.
Upadhyaya was appointed as a U.S. Magistrate judge on Sept. 7, 2022, according to her D.C. District Court biography. A U.S. magistrate judge is appointed by majority vote of the active district judges of the court. A full-time magistrate judge serves an eight-year term and has the authority to conduct preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, such as arraignments, among other duties.
Upadhyaya was born in born in Gujarat, India, and raised near Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri and went on to receive her law degree from American University, Washington College of Law.
After law school, Upadhyaya clerked for two years for the Honorable Eric Washington, former chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, then joined the law firm Venable LLP where she practiced complex commercial and administrative litigation. Through her pro bono practice, which was focused on representing indigent clients in post-conviction proceedings, Venable named Upadhyaya its Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2006 and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project awarded her its Defender of Innocence Award in 2009.
Upadhyaya first joined the D.C. District Court in 2011, when she served as the first law clerk to the Honorable Robert Wilkins through 2012 during his prior tenure as a district judge. She then returned to Venable, where she ultimately became a partner and continued her litigation practice until being appointed to the bench.
From 2021 to 2022, Upadhyaya was appointed to serve on the D.C. District Court’s Committee on Grievances, which investigates complaints against attorneys.
The judge has served on the Board of Directors for the D.C. Access to Justice Foundation and Council for Court Excellence and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing. In a brief interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Trump called the new charges a “pile on” and, like his other indictments, “ridiculous.”
He is expected to enter a plea of not guilty during his arraignment on Thursday.
(EAGLE PASS TX) — The Texas Department of Public Safety arrested several fathers seeking asylum in the United States last month, resulting in them being separated from their families, according to an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.
Twenty-six fathers have been separated from their families that the legal aid agency is aware of, with many of them being arrested on trespassing charges, Audrey Mulholland, a TRLA attorney, told ABC News. Those arrests occurred between July 10 and 14.
“It’s very unclear to these families what’s happening and why they are being separated,” she said. “The fathers have told me that their children are hanging on to them and crying and really distraught as they see their fathers arrested and taken away from them.”
She remarked how similar their clients’ accounts were.
When asylum seekers reach the river, Texas DPS officers — instead of immigration officers — direct them to a certain point in it, Mulholland said. “They are the ones that [are] kind of directing them to enter up on the riverbank.”
Muholland said asylum seekers have told her the officers first call for single men and women to cross. Both groups are then arrested, she said. Next, the officers call for families to cross, directing men to one side and women and children to the other, Muholland said. The fathers are arrested and then go to state prison, she said.
“I am not entirely sure what they’re being advised in that moment as the reason for their arrest,” she said, referring to the separated fathers. “But I do know the one thing I’ve heard from all of them that extremely perplexed them was that they were told that they would be reunited with their families later in immigration custody, which just hasn’t happened.”
Mulholland said she believes there’s a lot of confusion among asylum seekers about where they’re supposed to present themselves.
She also claimed that Texas DPS has been making arrests on the premise that the asylum seekers trespassed onto private property.
A Texas DPS spokesperson told ABC News in a statement that, “There have been instances in which DPS has arrested male migrants on state charges who were with their family when the alleged crime occurred. Children and their mothers were never separated, but instead turned over to the US Border Patrol together.”
In response to the report that Texas troopers have been separating migrant families at the border, a White House spokesperson said in a written statement that “Governor Abbott’s reckless actions continue to undermine our border management plan which has proven effective in decreasing irregular migration to the Southwest Border. As the President has said multiple times, the Trump Administration’s family separation policy was abhorrent and unconscionable. Any effort to replicate that violates every notion of who we are as a nation.”
ABC News reached out to Abbott’s office for comment.
A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security said, “This report is troubling and should be thoroughly investigated. We can both enforce our laws and treat human beings with dignity. Unlawful border crossings have gone down since our border enforcement plan went into effect and remain well below the levels seen under the Title 42 public health Order. Managing our border in a safe and humane way works best when we all work together to respect the dignity of every human being and keep our communities safe.”
Former Senior DHS Official and ABC News Contributor John Cohen said that during the Trump administration the country learned “family separation practices were highly problematic.”
The alleged separation of fathers from families “is beyond disturbing and may result in further civil action by the Department of Justice,” Cohen said, adding that a state law enforcement organization “has zero authority to enforce federal immigration laws.”
According to Mulholland, it’s difficult to say when the families will be reunited due to the separated members having to go through different proceedings.
The mothers and children who were first processed by border patrol might have been given release documents and referred for an immigration court hearing, she said, while the fathers when they go through immigration custody are being placed in expedited removal.
“We do believe this is a new state-sponsored family separation and this is just another kind of step that the state of Texas is taking to try and dissuade desperate asylum seekers,” Mulholland said. “It is just another step in which they are entering kind of the federal immigration enforcement realm.”
(DELRAY BEACH, FL) — A man has been arrested for premeditated murder after human remains belonging to his wife were found in three suitcases in Florida last month, court records show.
The three suitcases were uncovered in the Intracoastal Waterway on July 21, after someone called 911 to report something strange in the waterway, the Delray Beach Police Department said.
The remains were believed to be that of “a white or Hispanic middle-aged woman with brown hair and approximately 5’4″ tall,” police said amid their investigation following the gruesome discovery. One of the suitcases had a sticker with the name, “Latam, MIA, Barbosa,” on it, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The investigation, including reviewing surveillance footage, led police to execute a search warrant on Monday in the home of William Lowe, 78, of Delray Beach, court records show. They found “blood spatter throughout the residence,” including in the living room, dining room and primary bathroom, according to the affidavit.
A search of Lowe’s storage unit also uncovered a chainsaw that appeared to have blood and other human remains on it, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police on Monday, Lowe reportedly said that his wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, had been in Brazil for “about 3 weeks,” but when asked, he did not know how she got to the airport, what airline she flew or the last time he spoke to her, according to the affidavit.
When shown photos of two of the suitcases the victim’s remains were found in, Lowe reportedly said he had never seen them before, according to the affidavit. When asked by police why there would be a sticker with his wife’s name on it on one of the suitcases, he reportedly replied, “I don’t know,” according to the affidavit.
On Tuesday, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim through dental records as Aydil Barbosa Fontes, according to the affidavit. The medical examiner determined the manner of death to be homicide and the cause of death to be a gunshot wound to the head, according to the affidavit.
Lowe was booked into the Palm Beach County jail on Wednesday on first-degree premeditated murder and abuse of a dead body, online jail records show. It is unclear if he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
(OREGON)–An Oregon man is accused of holding a woman captive in a makeshift cinder block cell in his garage before she managed to break free, according to federal authorities, who said they believe there may be past sexual assault victims of the suspect.
Negasi Zuberi, 29, is in federal custody for interstate kidnapping, the FBI’s Portland Field Office said. He was arrested last month after a woman escaped from his home in Klamath Falls and claimed she was “kidnapped, shackled, sexually assaulted and locked in this makeshift cell,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephanie Shark told reporters during a press briefing on Wednesday announcing the suspect’s arrest.
“Although law enforcement daily combats violence and tragedy, some cases alarm even the most seasoned investigators — particularly when shocking details are revealed and we see that there may be multiple unknown victims,” she said, adding that this is “that kind of case.”
Zuberi allegedly met the victim shortly after midnight on July 15 after traveling from his home in Klamath Falls to Seattle, according to the federal complaint.
Zuberi allegedly solicited the services of a sex worker before claiming to be an undercover police officer who needed to take her into custody, according to the complaint. He allegedly showed a badge to the woman, who observed a handgun in the vehicle, the complaint said.
The complaint alleges that Zuberi pointed a Taser at the woman, placed her in handcuffs and leg irons in the back seat of the car and drove approximately 450 miles to his home in Klamath Falls, sexually assaulting her during the trip.
Once at the residence, Zuberi allegedly placed the victim in a cell in his garage that was “made of cinder blocks and a metal door installed in reverse so it could not be opened from the inside,” the complaint stated.
After Zuberi reportedly said he had to leave to do some paperwork, the woman slept briefly but “awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,” according to the complaint.
The woman repeatedly punched the metal screen door and managed to break it open and crawl through after being held for a couple of hours, according to Klamath Falls Police Capt. Rob Reynolds. She suffered several lacerations on her knuckles in the process, he said.
“She realized that she needed to get out of that residence because her life was in danger, and she took the substantial steps to force her way out of that cell,” Reynolds said during the briefing.
The woman fled the garage, climbed over a wooden fence and flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911, according to the complaint.
Klamath Falls police executed a search warrant for Zuberi’s residence on July 16 and found the “makeshift cell” in the garage, along with the woman’s purse, according to the complaint.
Zuberi was located by Nevada state police in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, Nevada, on the afternoon of July 16 with his wife and child, according to the complaint. He was taken into custody after a 45-minute standoff, Shark said.
Zuberi was ordered detained in Reno during a July 26 court appearance and is in the process of being extradited to Oregon, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment on Wednesday charging Zuberi with interstate kidnapping and sexual assault. The charge of interstate kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of up to life in federal prison if convicted, while transporting an individual across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
Court records do not include any attorney information for Zuberi. He is expected to appear in Oregon federal court in the coming weeks.
According to the FBI, Zuberi has lived in Oregon for several months and nine other states since August 2016 — Washington, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Alabama and Florida.
In the two weeks since his arrest, investigators have tied the suspect to at least four sexual assaults in four other states, according to Shark, who did not provide any additional details on the cases due to the active investigation.
“There is escalation of violence and intent, and so we are concerned that if we work backwards we’re gonna find unfortunately numerous victims,” Shark said.
Zuberi is also known as Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi, the FBI said. Investigators believe he may have used several different methods to allegedly gain control of his victims, including drugging their drinks and impersonating a law enforcement officer, Shark said.
Those with any information on Zuberi are urged to visit tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
(GEORGIA)–The mother of a Georgia woman who vanished more than two weeks ago, issued an emotional plea on Wednesday for anyone with knowledge of her daughter’s whereabouts to contact police.
Clarine Andujar-White, the mother of the missing woman, Imani Serafina Roberson, said her daughter came to her home for Sunday dinner on July 16 with her children and has not been seen since.
She said her 29-year-old daughter is a married mother of four children, including a 1-month-old infant.
“Imani loves her children. I know she would never leave her children or myself. Please help me reunite these babies with their mother,” a tearful Andujar-White said at a joint news conference on Wednesday afternoon with Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett.
Levett said investigators have spent more than 400 hours searching for Roberson, who was last seen driving a white Mazda SUV.
He said investigators issued a search warrant on Roberson’s home in Conyers, Georgia, on July 19, and gathered evidence that prompted them to search for her in Atlanta and South Fulton County.
“I have assured the family that we are going to find her daughter. We’re going to find out why her daughter is missing and so we’re urging the community to assist us with that,” Levett said.
Andujar-White described her daughter as 5-foot-2 with a small build, dark brown eyes, a caramel complexion and reddish braided hair. She said her daughter wears glasses and has a tattoo sleeve on her left arm.
Atlanta police said Roberson’s car was spotted in southwest Atlanta on July 16, the day she went missing.
Levett said that on the day Roberson vanished she went to her mother’s home for dinner with her four children. He said that after dinner, Roberson and two of her children left to go home and the other two children stayed with Andujar-White.
Andujar-White said her daughter left her home about 5:30 p.m. with two of her younger children and was planning to drive to her residence two streets away.
She said the next day, she called her daughter repeatedly but got no answer. She went to her daughter’s residence, but nobody was home, she said.
Andujar-White said she then reported her daughter missing to the sheriff’s office.
Andujar-White said three of her children have died in the past two decades. She did not say how they perished.
“Over the course of the last 20 years I have lost three children, please help me bring Imani home,” Andujar-White said. “Anyone who thinks they may have seen her or the car, please… There is no detail too small. We really need your help.”
ABC News’ Brittany Gaddy contributed to this report.
(NEW JERSEY)–A tractor-trailer carrying lemons overturned on a New Jersey highway on Wednesday giving new meaning to the phrase “when life gives you lemons.”
Police responded to numerous 911 calls right before 10 a.m. about an overturned tractor-trailer on Route 17, the Mahwah Police Dispatch said in a press release.
Upon arriving on the scene, officers found the trailer portion of the truck on the southbound lane of Route 17 after it hit another vehicle, police said. The trailer was completely blocking the northbound lane.
“The driver of the tractor trailer, from Ontario Canada, stated that he was hauling a truck load of lemons; which were subsequently thrown across the highway as a result of the crash,” Mahwah police said in the press release.
The driver told police he was driving on the northbound lane when he felt the trailer load move. He tried to fix the issue but that caused the trailer to dislodge, police said.
According to the police reporter, both the truck driver and the driver of the other vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were both transported to area hospitals.
Mahwah police anticipated that the crash would cause extensive traffic delays for a few hours on Wednesday.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing, police said.
In a similar incident, a truck carrying nacho cheese spilled across a highway in Arkansas on Tuesday, the Arkansas Department of Transportation said Tuesday on social media.
“Taco Tuesday, anyone? A truck carrying cans of nacho cheese spilled today on I-30 west near Prescott,” the state’s transportation department tweeted. ” Things are all clear now and traffic is moving.”
(WASHINGTON D.C)–The Capitol Police Department is urging everyone inside the Senate buildings at the Capitol to shelter in place following a report of a “possible active shooter.”
The Capitol Police said its “officers are searching in and around the Senate Office Buildings in response to a concerning 911 call,” adding that there’s no confirmed reports of gunshots.
A spokesperson for Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News the call about an active shooter appears to be a bad call.
“No injuries and no shooter were located,” the spokesperson said.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives are currently out of session on a summer recess.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
