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(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — The teacher shot in class by her 6-year-old student in Newport News, Virginia, claims the shooter had a history of violent behavior at school and accused the school’s assistant principal of failure to act despite being told repeatedly that the student had a gun at school, her lawyer alleged in a letter notifying the district of the intent to file a lawsuit.

The letter is one of three intent-to-file lawsuit letters sent to the school district and obtained by ABC News. Two other letters were submitted by parents of students who go to Richneck Elementary School.

In the letter, a lawyer for Abigail Zwerner, the teacher who was shot, alleged that four teachers, including Zwerner, and a guidance counselor all warned the school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, about the shooter’s behavior on the day of the shooting, but Parker failed to act when she was first notified, between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m., and when Zwerner was shot at 1:59 p.m.

Zwerner sustained a gunshot wound through her hand and into her chest on Jan. 6 when the student brought a gun into a classroom at Richneck Elementary School and intentionally shot and wounded her, according to police. A bullet remains lodged in her body, according to Diane Toscano, Zwerner’s lawyer.

The letter also alleged that the shooter had a history of concerning behavior at Richneck Elementary School, which Parker was aware of.

The student had allegedly been removed from the school a year prior after he “choked his teacher until she couldn’t breath,” according to the letter.

“This school year, the shooter was put on a modified schedule in the fall of 2022 after the school year had started because he constantly cursed at the staff and teachers and then one day took off his belt on the playground and chased kids trying to whip them,” according to the letter.

The shooter had been suspended the day before the shooting because he “slammed Ms. Zwerner’s phone breaking it” and had cursed at the guidance counselors,” according to the letter.

Zwerner also alleged that she told Parker that the student was in a “violent mood” and had already threatened to beat up a kindergartner on the day of the shooting.

Parker resigned from her position on Jan. 25, according to a school spokesperson.

In a second letter, the parents of one student alleged their daughter, Emari Nieves, who was in Zwerner’s class, was bullied by a student and witnessed the shooting.

Emari’s parents alleged they repeatedly notified Newport News Public Schools of the bullying and claim that the school division “did not take reasonable and appropriate actions to protect Emari and ensure Emari’s opportunity to attend a safe school environment. In addition, Emari was present in the classroom when the January 6, 2023 shooting occurred and suffered emotional harm as a result,” they wrote in the letter.

It is not clear whether the student who bullied Emari is the student who shot Zwerner.

The family is asking for all documents, information, video and audio recordings to be kept for the case.

The parents of the second student, Mark Garcia Jr., allege their son was feet away from the shooting.

According to lawyers, Garcia, who was allegedly in a classroom adjacent to the one where the shooting happened, also sent an intent-to-file lawsuit letter. Garcia’s lawyer said she is representing the student for “injuries sustained during” the shooting. They also are asking for the preservation of materials in this case. 

In the aftermath of the shooting, the district said it will install metal detectors at every school. Richneck Elementary School reopened to students on Jan. 30.

A spokesperson for the Newport News Public School district did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Parker could not immediately be reached for a comment.

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(SAN FRANCISCO) — At least one civilian and one firefighter were injured in a massive, three-alarm fire that impacted three homes in San Francisco on Thursday, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

The civilian is in serious condition and the firefighter is in stable condition, the department said.

UPDATE 3- ALARM FIRE 3 HOMES AFFECTED- 1 INJURY AT THIS TIME- 1700 BLOCK OF 22ND AVE EVACUATED- AVOID THE AREA https://t.co/unrhslXklE pic.twitter.com/gOuwWUJ7J3

— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 9, 2023

Over 100 firefighters descended on the scene and the fire has since been contained, the department said.

One occupant is unaccounted for, San Francisco Fire Capt. Jonathan Baxter said.

3RD ALARM WORKING #FIRE, 3RD ALARM, 1700 BLOCK OF 22ND AVE @PGE4Me @SFPD on scene @KTVU @KRON4Desk @SFFDPIO on scene pic.twitter.com/QTedtC0hpM

— San Francisco Firefighters 798 (@SFFFLocal798) February 9, 2023

Some of the block was evacuated. The fire department is urging people to avoid the area.

“We are aware of the numerous calls and reports of an explosion and houses shaking in the area,” Baxter said.

There’s no threat to the public, Baxter said.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, the fire department said.

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(WASHINGTON, Kan.) — A spill of more than 500,000-gallons of crude oil from the Keystone Pipeline in December in Kansas was caused by a combination of a faulty weld and “bending stress fatigue” on the pipe, the conduit’s operator announced Thursday.

TC Energy, the pipeline’s Canadian operator, said the cause was determined by an independent lab analysis on the failed section of the 2,687-mile conduit.

“Although welding inspection and testing were conducted within applicable codes and standards, the weld flaw led to a crack that propagated over time as a result of bending stress fatigue, eventually leading to an instantaneous rupture,” TC Energy said in a statement.

The faulty weld in a fitting girth connecting two sections of pipe “was completed at a fabrication facility,” TC Energy said.

The cause of the bending stress of the pipeline remains under investigation.

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, according to the company.

“The metallurgical analysis identified no issues with the strength or material properties of the pipe or manufactured fitting. The pipeline was operating within its operational design and within the pipeline design maximum operating pressure,” the company said.

TC Energy estimated that cost of cleaning up the oil spill was $480,000.

The Kansas oil leak is 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 Washington County, Kansas, was first detected Dec. 7, about 20 miles south of the pipeline’s Steele City, Nebraska, terminal. The leak in the 36-inch diameter pipeline spilled down a hill and into a creek, prompting TC Energy to shut down the entire line.

The leak was the latest in a series of accidents on the pipeline. A federal report released in 2021 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.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter who carried a Confederate flag, and was among the first people to breach the U.S. Capitol building, to three years in prison.

Kevin Seefried of Delaware was part of a mob on the Senate side of the Capitol building and was the first to confront Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who successfully diverted the attackers away from senators nearby.

Goodman recalled Seefried threatening him and jabbing at him with his flag pole.

Members of the mob shouted threats at Goodman, prosecutors said, including: “He’s one person. We’re thousands.”

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden said this racially charged encounter was a negative factor in his sentencing determination for Seefried.

Seefried’s son, Hunter, is currently serving a two-year sentence for storming the Capitol with his father.

A court previously determined that while Hunter was still liable, his father influenced him in ultimately breaking the law.

Holding his hands behind his back, Seefried delivered a tearful apology to the judge, saying he was “deeply sorry” for his actions and particularly to the officers involved.

McFadden called Seefried’s conduct “deeply troubling” and disagreed with arguments from the defense that Seefried’s lack of mental acuity should weigh favorably in his sentencing.

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(NEW YORK) — Four days before the penalty phase is scheduled to begin, attorneys for Sayfullo Saipov sought on Thursday to strike the government’s decision to seek the death penalty, in part because of what the defense said was possible ethnic or religious discrimination.

Saipov was convicted of carrying out the deadliest terror attack in New York City since Sept. 11 when he drove a truck down a bicycle and pedestrian path along the Hudson River in October 2017, killing eight people.

The defense motion questioned why the government was pursuing the death penalty when the Biden administration has imposed a moratorium on federal executions and declined to authorize the death penalty in deadlier attacks, notably the hate crime at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that killed 23 people in 2019.

“And given the recent decision to accept Patrick Crusius’s guilty plea to life imprisonment despite his unrepentant and premeditated hate killing of 23 Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas — Crusius being a white, U.S.-born citizen — the Court should have significant concern that a driving force behind the death notice in this case is Mr. Saipov’s religion and national origin, in violation of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments,” defense attorney David Patton said.

Saipov is willing to plead guilty, waive all appeals and consent to lifetime imprisonment under strict conditions that will all but eliminate his third-party communications for the foreseeable future, Patton said.

There was no immediate response from the government, which has previously defended its discretion to pursue capital punishment. The penalty phase of Saipov’s case is scheduled to begin Monday.

If the judge is unwilling to strike the death penalty, the defense said he should at least order federal prosecutors to reveal evidence behind the decision.

The Trump administration authorized the death penalty for Saipov and the Biden administration reauthorized it.

The defense pointed out then-President Donald Trump’s public calls for Saipov’s execution and his use of the truck attack to rail against so-called “chain migration” and the diversity visa lottery system.

“[I]n the days and weeks immediately following the truck attack, then-President Trump persistently demanded that Mr. Saipov face the death penalty based on nothing more than an intemperate assessment of his crime and his identity as an Uzbek Muslim immigrant who was a diversity visa lottery winner — an aspect of United States immigration policy that was long the focus of the Trump Administration’s ire,” the defense said.

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(NEW YORK) — The parents and sister of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed in the Rust on-set shooting, plan to file a new lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and the film, according to the family’s attorney.

Their attorney, Gloria Allred, said she will be holding a press briefing Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET to announce the filing of the lawsuit.

Hutchins was working as a cinematographer on the Western when Baldwin accidentally shot and killed her while he was practicing using a handgun on the New Mexico set in October 2021. Director Joel Souza was also injured in the shooting.

Her husband, with whom she shared a young son, previously reached a settlement in his wrongful death lawsuit against the producers of the film.

Baldwin and the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, have been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the death Hutchins. They are scheduled to make their first court appearance virtually on Feb. 24.

Prosecutors claim that Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed failed to correct reckless safety violations in their roles as producer and armorer, respectively, and that Baldwin had his finger inside the trigger and it was pulled — contradicting his statements saying he never pulled the trigger.

Attorneys for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed vowed to fight the charges.

First assistant director David Halls has already agreed to plead no contest for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. The plea agreement is pending a judge’s approval, prosecutors said. A plea conference has been scheduled for March 8.

Several other lawsuits have also been filed in the wake of the fatal on-set shooting.

The film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, who is also represented by Allred, filed a civil suit in November 2021 accusing Baldwin of “playing Russian roulette” by pointing a Colt .45 revolver at Hutchins.

In November 2022, Baldwin filed a lawsuit over the fatal shooting, alleging negligence of several of the film’s crew members. The cross-complaint followed the lawsuit filed by Mitchell.

Gutierrez-Reed also filed a lawsuit early last year against the prop provider.

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(NEW YORK) — After nearly 9,500 laser strikes were reported against aircraft last year, U.S. officials are calling on manufacturers to warn customers of potential risks.

The acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Billy Nolen, wrote to laser manufacturers and distributors on Thursday asking them to add or enhance warning labels on their packaging to increase consumer awareness of safety risks and federal laws when using lasers.

“Lasers may seem like just [a] toy, office tool, or game for most, but they can incapacitate pilots putting thousands of passengers at risk every year,” Nolen wrote in the letter, obtained exclusively by ABC News.

Experts agree: Laser strikes can distract pilots and even lead to temporary blindness.

“The problem with lasers fired into cockpits is the possibility of flying blind with not only one pilot, but possibly both,” ABC News contributor and former commercial pilot John Nance said in an interview. “And for those moments, to have a laser flashing your eye and distracting you, even if it doesn’t blind you, it’s extremely dangerous. If you do this enough, over time, we’re going to have a disaster.”

The total laser strike reports for 2022 were down slightly from a record high seen in 2021, when the FAA said it was aware of more than 9,700 incidents.

Since 2010, 277 pilots have reported injuries from laser strikes, according to data from the agency.

“Placing information directly in the hands of individuals ensures everyone knows the risk – and the penalties – of pointing lasers at aircraft. If you already have a warning on your packaging, the FAA asks that your company increase the warning’s prominence,” Nolen wrote in his Thursday letter.

Intentionally aiming lasers at aircrafts violates federal law. Individuals may face up to $11,000 in civil penalties per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple incidents.

Violators can also face criminal penalties from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Last year, a paramedic aboard a Utah medical helicopter was temporarily blinded after the chopper experienced a laser strike, according to local officials. The helicopter was transporting a patient at the time and was able to land safely.

In late January, a Florida grand jury indicted a man for allegedly pointing a laser at U.S. Coast Guard and Miami-Dade County Police helicopters. The complaint accused him of intending to continue pointing a laser at the helicopters and telling that intention to law enforcement officers.

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(NEW YORK) — Kamilah Moore, the chair of California’s Reparations Task Force, is a direct descendant of enslaved people in the United States.

Now, she’s one of several leaders behind the nation’s groundbreaking reparations effort to examine the impact slavery and systemic racism has had on Black Americans and how to reverse the harm it’s done.

“I grew up in an environment where we took pride in learning about our history as African Americans,” Moore said. “I learned very early on about the reparations movement … and that history just always stayed with me.”

The first-in-the-nation state-backed task force is just one of several efforts in California alone. Other efforts for reparations have been seen in San Francisco and Palm Springs.

In Palm Springs, hundreds of Black and Mexican families are seeking millions of dollars in restitution for being forcibly evicted from the Section 14 neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s.

In San Francisco, the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee recommended providing a one-time payment of $5 million to eligible recipients, as well as directing funding to target community issues concerning housing, education disparities and the racial wealth gap.

“This really is about payment and redress for unpaid labor, for restrictive covenants and for legislation that was particularly [targeted against the] Black community and created a system of harm for the Black community,” said Tinisch Hollins, the vice chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission working on the reparations effort.

Across the board, reparations task force members say one of the major forces stopping progress for the movement is how much people don’t understand.

Moore said her task force is often asked: “Why California? California wasn’t a slave state!”

California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state. However, up to 1,500 enslaved African Americans lived in California by 1852, according to the state task force’s preliminary report on reparations recommendations.

The report found that the state of California and the various arms of its government have played an active role in perpetuating systemic racism against Black Californians.

Researchers have found that housing and employment discrimination, displacement of communities of color and educational segregation have impacted the economic and social prosperity of Black people in the state.

It can be seen in the displacement of Black residents, disparities in Black home appraisals, over policing and over incarceration in Black communities, and more that has stifled the potential for wealth growth among Black residents.

Racism has shaped the lives of Black Californians, with some discriminatory practices continuing into the ’70s, ’80s and still hindering or disadvantaging state residents today, they say.

This is why some say reparations are a necessity.

“Reparations is a debt owed to those who suffered gross human rights violations, and even their direct descendants and many repertory justice groups around the world are still owed reparations because of the concept of direct extended standing in the shoes of their ancestors,” Moore said.

Critics of reparations in the state argue that since the state did not practice slavery, it should not be obligated to atone for racism. About 68% of Americans say descendants of slaves should not be repaid, according to Pew Research Center.

Some, including Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, have also argued that no one who enslaved Black Americans is alive and, therefore, bear no responsibility for addressing this.

“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea,” said McConnell in 2019 regarding a House hearing on federal reparations.

Reparations can come in many different forms. Moore describes five main arrangements that fall under the reparations umbrella: compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.

Compensation is what is typically thought of as “reparations,” as it refers to cash payments given to recipients.

Restitution reverses a particular violation. For example, the return of land or housing to someone from whom it was taken is a common form of reparations seen in the Native and Indigenous fight for reparations.

Rehabilitative reparations often come in the form of mental health, medical, legal or social services and the like.

Satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, according to Moore, come in the forms of policy reform, removing legal slavery language from state constitutions, public apologies from officials, memorials and more.

“The general consensus is that we can go on forever listing the harm that has happened,” Hollins said.

“People need and want restoration for that harm now. They don’t want to wait another five years or another decade creating reports to evaluate the harm that’s been done. The harm that’s been done will be experienced in perpetuity by the Black community in San Francisco and throughout the country,” Hollins said.

Different recommendations under these five forms have been submitted for deliberation by the California task force, and the San Francisco effort just held a public hearing Tuesday on the plan.

As this groundbreaking effort continues forward with uncertainty and no guarantee that their recommendations will be officially granted, California leaders are asking themselves:

“What can be done now that’s scalable? And then how do we make sure that the harm is not only repaired but prevented in perpetuity? That’s what Black people care about right now,” said Sheryl Davis, the executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

Final reports from both committees will be submitted in summer 2023.

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(NEW YORK) — The wife of a California public defender who died in Mexico last month is revealing new details deepening the mystery surrounding her husband’s death at a resort in Baja California.

“He was my rock in this world,” Kimberly Williams told ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman in an exclusive interview airing on Good Morning America Thursday. “We bought our dream home, planned to have children together.”

“Without him, I feel like I have nothing,” she said of her husband, Elliot Blair, 33.

Williams and her husband, both public defenders at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, were celebrating their first wedding anniversary at Las Rocas Resort and Spa — located on the shores of Rosarito Beach, just south of Tijuana, along the western coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula — when Blair appeared to have fallen off a balcony to his death at the resort on Jan. 14.

She had been sleeping during the incident, she said, and recalled a security guard and the hotel manager in her room, saying, “Excuse me, miss, excuse me, excuse me, is this your boyfriend down here?”

“I turned to the side, I didn’t see him there, so I ran out the front door and they’re pointing over the side of our front door area to the ground. Well, that was my Elliot down there,” she said.

An autopsy established that Blair’s death “was the result of an unfortunate accident due to the fall of the deceased from a third floor,” the State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California said in a statement.

Local authorities said there were no signs of struggle in the couple’s hotel room. A toxicology report found that there was a “considerable” amount of alcohol in Blair’s body, the State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California said. His cause of death was listed as severe head trauma in a forensic medical necropsy certificate.

However, Williams and her attorney maintain that the extent of Blair’s injuries appears to indicate he was attacked.

“It’s the physical evidence we’ve been able to obtain, the autopsy,” Case Barnett, the family’s attorney, told Good Morning America. “The autopsy confirms that he, Elliot Blair, was murdered that night.”

Barnett said it appears to him based on the evidence that Blair may be been beaten by more than one man, though why remains unclear.

Williams also said Blair was not so drunk he’d fall over a balcony, saying he likely drank five or six drinks over six hours that night.

Dr. Rami Hashish, a biomechanics, body performance and injury expert who is consulting with the family on the case, said he doesn’t “really think that there’s much evidence [to] point to the fact that it was an accident.”

“I think it’s relatively clear the injury pattern[s] just simply don’t add up with one another,” Hashish said. “There’s bruising marks on the body. There’s indications of potential being dragged on the front of the body. There’s fractures to the back of the skull. Nothing really points to the fact that it was necessarily an accident.”

Blair’s body was embalmed before they could have their own toxicology report performed, the family’s attorney said. Though Williams said that Blair likely drank five or six drinks over six hours that night and was not drunk.

“In my nine years of being with him and knowing him, I can tell you, I’ve never seen him sloppy. I’ve never seen him not be able to stand. I’ve not seen him not be able to walk and care for himself,” she said.

The couple spent the night dining at a local restaurant. On the way back to the resort, the couple was pulled over by local police who claimed they had rolled through a stop sign and demanded they pay them cash, Williams said.

“We’ve never been pulled over before,” Williams said. “We were both rattled, but at the same time we both had this feeling of thank God they didn’t do anything more to us.”

Back at the resort, they danced at the lobby bar before going to bed around midnight, Williams said. The next thing she remembers is the security guard and hotel manager in their room waking her up and telling her that Blair was on the ground.

According to 911 calls from that night obtained by ABC News, at 12:50 a.m., the resort called to report “a person who apparently suffered a fall.” About 20 minutes later, paramedics arrived on the scene saying Blair had no vital signs.

Williams said authorities went through several scenarios with her of what could have happened to her husband, including suicide and accident — “everything under the sun except for what I think happened: Someone did this to him,” she said.

“I just know it’s not an accident. I know he didn’t fall. I just know that,” she said. “I want to do everything we can to figure out what happened in that 45-minute, hour time span. Because that’s what Elliot deserves. And that’s the hardest part for me, is not knowing.”

Williams said police also asked her that night if the two of them had been fighting, which she also denied.

“We’re here on our anniversary. What are you talking about?” she recalled telling them. “No, we’re not fighting.”

Barnett said they have hired private investigators in Mexico to gather information, but they have “hit a wall with the investigation.”

“Kim’s family need answers to bring closure to this so they can really start moving on from it,” Barnett said.

Williams said she is speaking out now in honor of her husband’s memory, whom she described as a compassionate and empathetic lawyer.

“I don’t want him to be forgotten. I want the world to know who my Elliot is,” she said. “I want people to know he’s not some drunk that stumbled off the front ledge of our hotel room.”

“I want the world to remember the person he was — his smile, his heart,” she continued. “That’s one of the only things keeping me going right now — is the idea of doing this for him, for honoring his name.”

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(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — Officers from the East Palestine Police Department in Ohio arrested NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert during a press conference about the cleanup efforts following a train derailment in a small Ohio village.

Officials from the Columbiana County Jail confirmed Lambert was released at 10:20 p.m. on Wednesday and faces criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct charges. The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC News that they also assisted in the reporter’s arrest.

According to NewsNation, Lambert was doing a live report while Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke at the conference, prompting law enforcement to ask Lambert to be quiet. NewsNation said that Lambert concluded the segment before being asked to leave. Multiple videos from the incident show officers arresting and subsequently forcibly removing Lambert.

“I got arrested because I was doing a live report about what people need to know,” Lambert said, walking out of the building in handcuffs.

DeWine did not see the incident due to a row of cameras but heard a “disagreement,” according to Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary.

“Governor DeWine did not request that the reporter stop his live broadcast, nor did he know that the request was being made,” Tierney wrote.

DeWine defended Lambert’s right to report when asked about the confrontation during the press conference.

“All I can say is that person had a right to be reporting; they should have been allowed to report,” DeWine said. “If they were in any way hampered from reporting, that certainly is wrong, and it is not anything I approve; in fact, I vehemently disapprove of it.”

DeWine reiterated at the press conference that he did not authorize the arrest, inviting Lambert to interview him upon release.

“I am certainly very, very sorry that happened; I don’t know all the facts, but he or she, whoever was arrested, had every right to be reporting and do what they do every single day,” he said.

Earlier reports indicated Lambert would be in police custody overnight, though officials confirmed he was released.

“No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country,” Lambert told NewsNation following his release.

Lambert was in East Palestine to cover the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that prompted the evacuation of nearly half the town of 5,000 residents. Local and state officials announced Wednesday that residents could return to their homes after air quality samples showed safe levels of contaminants in the area.

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