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(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) — Newly obtained 911 calls and radio traffic reveal the chaos and heartbreak as the Monterey Park, California, mass shooting unfolded.
One frantic 911 call came from a man who said his girlfriend had been shot in their car just outside the dance studio. He told police they were in the parking lot when “suddenly” somebody came and shot through the window.
The dispatcher asked the man if she was breathing, and he replied, “No, maybe she died? I’m not sure.”
He said he could see blood coming from her nose and head. The dispatcher advised him to lean her seat all the way back.
The dispatcher asked the man if he could see her chest moving up and down, and he said, “No, no, I’m not sure.” He pleaded, “Come, hurry!”
Another 911 caller said, “Somebody with a gun shooting people, inside the studio — we just scared him off.”
“Send police here right away,” the man said. “He might start shooting again. I’m outside of the building, I don’t know if anybody got hurt.”
Eleven people were killed and several others were injured when a gunman opened fire at a crowded Monterey Park dance studio on Jan. 21. The suspect then fled and went to nearby Alhambra, where he allegedly entered a second dance hall and was disarmed by a good Samaritan, according to police.
The suspected gunman was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot one day after the shooting, police said.
ABC News’ Lissette Rodriguez and Abigail Shalawylo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Cities and towns around the country are turning to a new scientifically based algorithm that will work to help judges make decisions during pretrial processes in an attempt to create fairer judicial procedures that are less focused on a cash-based bail system.
The algorithm, called the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) tool, was created by the Advancing Pretrial Policy & Research center and is a project of the National Partnership for Pretrial Justice. It was funded by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy founded by billionaire John Arnold and his wife Laura Arnold. The assessment tool is free and has been implemented in more than 50 jurisdictions in states, cities and counties around the country, according to sources involved in the development of risk assessment tools.
According to those close to its creation, the PSA algorithm was formulated by analyzing 750,000 historical criminal cases around the country, which pinpoint nine factors that best determine a set of critical pretrial questions: How likely would a released detainee be to appear in court for their trial, commit a new crime and perpetrate a violent criminal act?
Detainees are scored on a scale of 1 to 6, in what is called a release conditions matrix, according to creators of the PSA. It is then up to the jurisdiction to determine what happens to the charged individual based on their score. The PSA was never created to replace judges as decision makers in pretrial releases. Rather, it’s another tool they can use when deciding to release a detainee before their trial, according to sources close to the development of PSA.
“We’re going to hopefully ensure that people who cannot afford a bond are not going to be held just because they can’t afford it,” Nushin Sayfie, chief judge of Miami-Dade County in Florida, told ABC News. “We’re also going to make sure that people that are going to pose any kind of threat or danger to the community that they’re going to actually see a judge before they’re released.”
According to those familiar with the creation of risk-assessment tools, the PSA was created in hopes of ending the cash-bail system. They believe judges can implement other conditions, such as court reminders through text, pretrial supervision and criminal history checks, once a month, in lieu of cash bonds.
In the current system, a first-time offender arrested in Miami for shoplifting could stay detained in jail until their trial if they do not have enough money to pay their bail. And if someone with enough money were detained for aggravated battery with a firearm, they could get out on bond without even having to see a judge before their trial, according to Sayfie.
Discrepancies like these in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida are a big reason why Miami hopes to implement a new PSA algorithm that will help officials reform the county’s pretrial bail processes.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voiced opposition against “rogue” judges releasing people into the community and announced at a press conference in Miami last week that he would unveil new criminal-justice legislation.
Sayfie’s office told ABC News they would put the pretrial reform initiative on hold until after DeSantis delivers his proposal at the Florida legislative session this spring. Sayfie’s office is confident their bail reform plans fall in line with DeSantis’ views on criminal justice and believe their policies could still roll out by the end of this year, as planned.
But there are critics of the algorithm on both sides of the bail reform issue.
“There’s been so many panaceas in the criminal justice system that we’ve been promised are going to fundamentally change and move justice forward by, sort of, leaps and bounds,” Patrick Kenneally, McHenry County State Attorney in Illinois, said. “I am skeptical that these types of things are going to fundamentally change how courts operate or increase the accuracy of projecting future behavior.”
Illinois was poised to become the first state in the country to eliminate the cash bail system. But Kenneally joined state attorneys in other Illinois counties in a lawsuit halting the enactment of the law. According to Kenneally, the bill is currently on hold as it moves through the appellate process before the Illinois Supreme Court.
According to sources close to the development of the PSA tool, discussions about eliminating cash bail become conflated by prosecutors who believe cashless bail policies will make communities inherently more dangerous. Research shows money doesn’t improve court appearance or community safety; rather, it mostly extracts wealth from poorer communities, according to those familiar with the development of risk assessment algorithms.
“The kind of biggest problem with these tools is that we actually can’t predict serious crime that well. We haven’t been able to for decades and decades,” Colin Doyle, Associate Professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, said. “There are still real limits to it and there are real limits to being able to predict human behavior, particularly rare actions like violent crime.”
There are those like Megan Guevara, executive partner with the Pretrial Justice Institute, who agree that bail reform should change to a cashless system but think the PSA tool is not the answer because she says the factors considered reflect inherent racial bias.
“When criminal history data, like the number of times somebody has previously been arrested or previously been convicted, is used to calculate a score, we know that people of color in the United States are more likely to have been arrested, more likely to live in over-policed communities and more likely to have been convicted of a crime,” Guevara said. “So, it means that there’s racial bias baked into those tools.”
Those close to the development of risk assessment tools admit that they haven’t seen a reduction in racial disparities in jurisdictions that have implemented the algorithm. PSA can help reduce the reliance on a cash-bail system, but on its own, it won’t eliminate disparities in the system, according to those familiar with the PSA formulation.
New Jersey began applying the PSA tool as part of an overhaul plan for its judicial system in 2017. The inmate population, which was 8,482 in 2018, dropped in 7,937 in 2019. But in 2020, restrictions were put in place to combat COVID-19, slowing the criminal justice process and increasing the jail population to 8,930, according to New Jersey courts. However, serious crime offenses, which include murder, rape, aggravated assault and burglary, fell to 164,965 in 2020 from 212,346 in 2017, according to the New Jersey government records.
But in New Mexico, 80 percent of detainees the algorithm recommended be released in Bernalillo County were still detained by the courts because of the seriousness of their crimes, according to the Bernalillo County district attorney.
Judge Sayfie is eager to implement the algorithm in her district, but isn’t planning on eliminating cash bail.
“I want to assure people that we are doing everything we can, and we truly believe that this is going to improve public safety,” Sayfie said. “More people who are arrested currently on firearm charges are going to be seeing a judge that currently don’t. And I believe it’s also going to be better because people will get to be released without having to post a bond if they’re low risk.”
(LOS ANGELES) — A cache of high-powered rifles, shotguns and handguns have been recovered at a man’s Los Angeles apartment and authorities say a mass shooting may have been thwarted.
On Tuesday morning, officers in Hollywood responded to a call from building security of a man making threats, according to law enforcement sources.
The officers “determined the elements of Criminal Threats had been met” and they obtained a search warrant, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Police said they recovered “several high-powered rifles, shotguns, handguns and a large cache of various munitions” in the home. Some guns were found in front of a window, according to law enforcement sources.
Braxton Johnson, 24, was arrested for criminal threats, according to police.
Lt. Leonid Tsap told reporters, “There’s a high chance that the officers, and obviously security staff and the people who called, prevented a mass shooting from happening.”
Johnson served in the Army as an Infantryman from July 2016 to February 2020, according to an Army spokesperson. He had no deployments.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — There is up to 20 hours of additional video footage in the Tyre Nichols case that has yet to be released, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy’s office confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.
It is not yet clear what that footage may show.
The timing of that release is up to the city of Memphis with the city issuing a statement earlier this week saying any additional video would be released in the “next few weeks.”
Nichols, 29, died three days after he was beaten by police during an encounter following a traffic stop on Jan. 7. Memphis police released hours of footage from body cameras last Friday.
A funeral was held for Nichols on Wednesday, which was attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy. Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Nichols family, also spoke.
Three videos from body worn cameras were shared by the city of Memphis on Jan. 27 with the warning: “Footage contains graphic content and language. Some may find offense. Viewer discretion is advised.” A fourth video — soundless surveillance footage from a city pole camera — was also released, amounting to about 67 minutes total.
The videos prompted immediate outrage and protests across the nation.
The family of Tyre Nichols had been shown the video at the beginning of the week and supported to release of footage to draw attention to police brutality.
Five Memphis police officers were fired from the department and later charged with second-degree murder, among other felonies. They have yet to enter pleas, though two of the officers’ lawyers said they would plead not guilty.
In the videos released last week, Nichols is shown being pulled out of his car and wrestled to the ground, Nichols can be heard saying, “I didn’t do anything,” and tells officers at least twice that he is “just trying to go home.” During the altercation an officer warns Nichols, “I’m going to beat your a–.”
Nichols breaks free and runs away, with officers chasing him. A 30-minute clip from nearby surveillance footage at a second scene shows the officers catching up to Nichols and kicking, punching and striking him with a baton while being held down.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Bitter cold is moving into the northern Great Lakes and upper Midwest before a dangerous and possibly record-shattering freeze invades the Northeast.
By Thursday evening, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is expected to reach the minus 20s in Minneapolis. On Friday morning, the wind chill is forecast to fall to minus 18 degrees in Chicago.
The cold will move into the Northeast Friday morning, with wind chills expected to drop to 0 degrees in Boston, minus 10 degrees in Buffalo and minus 25 degrees in Burlington, Vermont.
The coldest air for the Northeast will hit Saturday morning, when wind chills are forecast to plunge to a bone-chilling minus 33 degrees in Boston, minus 23 degrees in Hartford and minus 9 degrees in New York City.
The most extreme forecast is for Caribou, Maine, near the Canadian border, where wind chills could be as low as minus 65 degrees on Saturday morning. That would clock in as the coldest wind chill on record.
But the extreme cold won’t last for long. On Sunday and Monday, New York City is forecast to thaw to 46 degrees and 50 degrees, respectively.
(BLOOMFIELD, N.J.) — A 26-year-old man is facing federal charges for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at a New Jersey synagogue.
Nicholas Malindretos, of Clifton, New Jersey, is accused of trying to firebomb the doors of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield this weekend.
According to the charging documents, a surveillance camera caught Malindretos approaching the synagogue in the middle of the night while wearing a mask and gloves. The video showed the attacker walk to the entrance and ignite a wick on the top of a bottle before throwing it at the front glass doors. The synagogue was not damaged.
Malindretos was tracked, in part, through his car, which was recorded near the synagogue shortly before and after the incident, the FBI said.
Temple Ner Tamid Rabbi Marc Katz said in a statement, “We have prayed, reflected, and have helped each other heal from this traumatic event.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy met with members of the synagogue on Tuesday.
On Thursday evening, the congregation will come together with the local community and New Jersey leaders for an “evening of prayer, healing and unity.”
“We must not forget that many communities across the country have suffered from violent and hateful attacks over the past months,” Katz said.
“We hope that Thursday evening’s community event will be an opportunity to join together in solidarity across faiths and regions of the state, to unite, strengthen the voices of the great majority, and show that there is no place for violence or hate,” he said.
Malindretos is due in court Thursday afternoon.
If convicted of attempted use of fire to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce, Malindretos faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The police traffic stop that led to Tyre Nichols’ death was detailed in an incident report obtained by ABC News, as well as a Memphis Police statement, but the written statements provide a different account from what the body camera footage of the disturbing encounter has revealed.
Nichols, a 19-year-old Black man, died after a confrontation with police in which he was beaten following a traffic stop.
The footage shows officers beating Nichols and targeting him with pepper spray as he begins yelling for his mother, who lived near the site of the encounter.
In body camera footage, officers can be seen standing over Nichols while he’s on the ground. As two officers hold him down, a third kicks him. A fourth officer comes over with a baton and the officers pick up Nichols from the ground and hold him up while officers appear to strike him in the face and torso.
The officers yell multiple times at Nichols to “give me your hands.” The officer with the baton can be heard saying, “I’ma baton the f— out of you” – then appears to strike him on the upper body three times. Officers pull Nichols to a stand, then appear to punch and slap him.
The official incident report does not mention that Nichols was kicked and punched by the officers. It also claims that Nichols started to fight with officers, reached for their guns, pulled on their duty belts and grabbed at least one officer by his vest. This cannot be seen in body camera footage.
Officers can be heard in the aftermath claiming that Nichols reached for their guns.
“Suspect Tyre Nichols was refusing a lawful detention by law enforcement officers and he started to fight with detectives,” the report reads.
It says Nichols was “sweating profusely” and “irate” when he exited the vehicle.
The report also claims Nichols “began actively resisting by pulling duty belts and grabbing Officer Smith by the vest.”
It describes the use of chemical agents and the use of the baton to strike Nichols.
The report says the Memphis Police Department officer responded to an “aggravated assault” and that former MPD Officer Martin had observed Nichols’ vehicle “driving recklessly at a high rate of speed” and “into oncoming traffic.”
The initial statement from the Memphis Police Department failed to mention the details of the physical altercations.
It’s not the only example in recent years of police reports or statements not aligning with details seen in body camera footage or other evidence.
Some law enforcement experts and lawyers argue that when people are in fast-paced, high-intensity situations, they may not be equipped to “record” key details the way a body camera can.
“There’s no training that any human being can go through that is going to teach them how to record an event like a machine,” said Michael Rains, a California attorney who has represented law enforcement in civil and criminal litigation.
Two former law enforcement officers told ABC News that every person’s recollection of an event can differ.
“We learned to not say that eyewitness testimony is the only thing,” TJ Kennedy, a public safety and de-escalation expert, told ABC News. “You have to put it all together.”
However, “It’s not to say that an officer wouldn’t lie or try to lie because we all know that that can happen,” Rains adds.
Some officers get a chance to look at body camera footage before submitting their report, while others may not be allowed to because of local legal restrictions, according to ABC News contributor and former San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.
It’s an ongoing debate in the industry, he said. Does it help officers recollect the events? Or does it cause officers to change their narrative based on what they saw in the footage?
“Now we have that conflict between what is the officer perceiving versus what the actual camera is showing,” said Burguan in an interview with ABC News.
Discrepancies in police reports, official statements and official documents have been seen in several recent police brutality cases.
George Floyd incident
The Minneapolis Police Department also has been criticized over its initial statement detailing the murder of George Floyd by then-MPD Police Officer Derek Chauvin.
“After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance,” read the May 26, 2020, statement.
The report fails to mention that Chauvin held his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, a moment captured on cellphone video by bystanders. The video prompted protests worldwide against police brutality.
Floyd, who was handcuffed and in a prone position on the pavement, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before falling unconscious and losing a pulse, according to evidence presented at Chauvin’s state trial.
Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Breonna Taylor
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in March 2020 by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers executing a no-knock search warrant on her home.
Her death became one of several that year that prompted global protests.
Details concerning the legitimacy of the search warrant unveiled by the Department of Justice in August 2022 prompted more ire.
The DOJ charged Detective Joshua Jaynes, former Louisville Detective Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany for allegedly violating Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights when they sought a warrant to search Taylor’s home while knowing they lacked “probable cause.”
The DOJ alleged that the officers knew their affidavit supporting the warrant contained false and misleading information and it omitted other material information, resulting in her death.
“Among other things, the affidavit falsely claimed that officers had verified that the target of the alleged drug trafficking operation had received packages at Ms. Taylor’s address. In fact, defendants Jaynes and Goodlett knew that was not true,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference on the charges.
Garland also alleged that Jaynes and Goodlett knew armed officers would be carrying out the raid at Taylor’s home, and that conducting the search could create “a dangerous situation for anyone who happened to be in Ms. Taylor’s home.”
Goodlett pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Taylor. Jaynes and Meany have both pleaded not guilty. The next status hearing for the trial is scheduled for Feb. 21.
Casey Goodson
Casey Goodson, 23, was shot and killed by Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason Meade while Goodson entered his home on Dec. 4, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio.
However, the details of the fatal incident from authorities and Goodson’s family don’t match up.
Goodson’s family said he was returning from a dentist appointment and had a Subway sandwich in his hand, according to family co-counsel Sean L. Walton.
“Casey had the screen door open and his keys in the door, and Deputy Jason Meade fired shots at Casey,” Walton told ABC News. “He fell into the house, where he lay in his kitchen.”
Meade, who had been taking part in an unsuccessful search for a fugitive along with the U.S. Marshals Service, said Goodson — who was not the target of the search — waved a gun at him when he drove by in his police car.
Meade confronted Goodson outside his home, and Goodson allegedly refused to drop his gun, U.S. Marshal Peter Tobin said at a press conference. Tobin later withdrew those remarks about Goodson waving a gun.
Meade is charged with murder and pleaded not guilty.
Meade’s attorney, Mark C. Collins, has said in a December 2021 statement that his client “acted within his lawful duties as an officer of the law when he pursued Mr. Goodson,” and said Meade fired his weapon at Goodson in “fear for his life as well as those inside the house.”
(NEW YORK) — A 30-year-old woman found fatally shot in her Sayreville, New Jersey townhouse complex has been identified by local officials as Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour.
She was shot while inside her white SUV, which appears to have then crashed on Samuel Circle at around 7:22 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
She sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. She lived in the townhouse complex where she was killed, just steps from her home.
She preliminarily appears to have been the target of the gunfire but a motive for the shooting was not immediately disclosed.
Mahesh Chitnis, who serves on Sayreville’s Human Relations Commission, posted on Facebook that the victim, who was also his neighbor, was “killed 300 feet from my home … She was shot while returning back home. She was a woman full of life.”
Hours later, her SUV was towed away by police, who did not say if a suspect was identified or an arrest was made.
Dwumfour was elected to the council in 2021 and worked as a business analyst and part-time EMT.
“The female had succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced on scene,” Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said in a statement. “This is an active and ongoing investigation anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area is asked to call Detective Rebecca Morales of the Sayreville Police Department at 732-727-4444 or Detective Michelle Coppola of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office 732-745-3477.”
(NEW YORK) — Over three years after Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe was found dead, the Department of Justice unsealed charges against two men involved in her murder.
A South Carolina man was charged with a hate crime for the 2019 murder of Doe in Allendale, South Carolina, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina. The U.S. Attorney also charged another man with obstruction offenses related to the murder.
The five-count federal indictment alleges that Daqua Ritter, 26, shot Doe on Aug. 4, 2019, “because of her actual and perceived gender identity.” Ritter faces the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the hate crime count alone. He also faces charges related to lying about his whereabouts on the day of the murder to federal investigators.
Another man, 24-year-old Xavier Pinckney, was charged with two obstruction counts for allegedly lying about seeing Ritter after the murder and concealing from investigators that his phone was used to call and text Doe on the day of the murder.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Doe’s death marked the second murder of a transgender woman in South Carolina within a month that summer. On July 20, 2019, Denali Berries Stuckey was killed in North Charleston. Both Stuckey and Doe were black transgender women.
“As occurs far too often in the reporting of anti-transgender violence, initial reports also misgendered and misnamed Doe in coverage of the crime, delaying HRC’s awareness of her death,” HRC wrote in 2019.
According to the Department of Justice, transgender persons are 2.5 times more likely to be violent crime victims than cisgender people.
In 2019 when Doe and Stuckley were murdered, 23 other transgender or gender non-conforming were killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
(NEW YORK) — Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog, awoke Thursday morning to see his shadow which means that — according to legend — there will be six more weeks of winter.
Legend has it that if he sees his shadow then winter will continue for another six weeks but if Punxsutawney Phil does not see his shadow spring will come early.
Phil’s prediction comes as parts of the county are being slammed with cripplingly cold temperatures and ice.
Phil’s actual prediction takes place ahead of time in a place called Gobbler’s Knob, a small hill just outside of the town, and has done so each year since 1887. This year marks the 137th time the event has occurred, according to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.
The men in top hats surrounding Phil during the ceremony are members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle. According to their website, their role is to “protect and perpetuate the legend of the great weather-predicting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil.”
Phil’s predictions have been fairly even over the past decade or so. From 2015 to 2020, the groundhog predicted a longer winter three times and an early spring three times.
