(KEENE, N.H.) — A small plane crashed into multifamily residential building in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday, killing both people on the board and igniting a 3-alarm fire, city officials said Saturday.
None of the eight adults who were in the building’s four apartments at the time of the crash were injured, despite all the units being occupied at the time of the crash, according to officials. Eight residents who lived in the building have all been displaced from their homes due to the extent of the damage.
The plane crashed into a two-story garage attached to the building. The two-story building sustained “significant damage” to an estimated 20% of the rear of the structure, and it will remain uninhabited until it can be further assessed, Keene Fire Chief Donald Farquhar said at a press conference Saturday.
The single-engine aircraft departed from Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport shortly before the accident. The aircraft was owned by Monadnock Aviation, a business that operates in New Hampshire, according to City Manager Elizabeth Dragon.
The plane was a Beechcraft Sierra and the crash occurred at 6:55 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Shortly after emergency crews arrived on scene, the fire was upgraded to a 2-alarm fire and then a 3-alarm fire, pulling in more resources from throughout the county, Farquhar said.
The Red Cross helped relocate the eight people who were displaced, Keene Mayor George Hansel said at the press conference.
The city’s fire department responded to the scene of the crash after receiving a 911 call just before 7 p.m. The fire was declared out at 8:47 p.m., Hansel said.
There are identifiable parts of the plane that are still in the building and will be left there until the investigation concludes. Officials will then remove what they can of the plane before returning the building to its owners, Farquhar said.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Hansel said it is too early to determine what caused the crash.
The FAA, New Hampshire Department of Transportation and National Transportation Safety Board are all on site and the NTSB will be the lead agency conducting an investigation, according to Dragon.
The aircraft was not equipped with a recording that could help investigators determine what went wrong, David Hickling, the director of the airport, said at the press conference. The airport was also unaware of any emergency call coming from the cockpit before the crash, Hickling said.
There are no indications from the plane’s history that there had been problems with it in the past, Hickling said.
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Two men are in custody in connection with a mass shooting at a Louisiana fraternity house that left nearly a dozen people injured, police said.
Police responded to the fraternity house near Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shortly before 2 a.m. Friday following a reported shooting.
Initial reports indicated that nine people sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, though that number has since increased to 11 after two more victims came forward, Baton Rouge Deputy Chief Myron Daniels told reporters late Friday.
Southern University, which is in the midst of celebrating its homecoming, said the shooting occurred off-campus at a non-university-sponsored event.
Two men were taken into custody Friday in connection with the shooting with the help of the U. S. Marshall Task Force, police said. Daryl Stansberry, 28, and Miles Moss, 24, have both been charged with 11 counts of accessory after the fact to attempted first-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon, police said. It is unclear if they have an attorney.
“Based on all the information that has been obtained, investigators believe this to be an isolated incident,” Daniels said. “There is no ongoing threat on the campus of Southern University.”
Daniels said no further information will be released at this time amid the investigation, which he called “fluid.”
The school said in a statement that the Southern University Police Department and other officials “are continuing to work to ensure that students, employees, alumni and other visitors to campus are safe during this Homecoming weekend,” adding that the university “strongly condemns any act of violence.”
This morning, a shooting occurred near campus. The Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating. While this unfortunate incident happened off campus at a non-University sponsored event, the University strongly condemns any act of violence. pic.twitter.com/Kf01oPjSEp
(CHICAGO) — Two Chicago residents died after being diagnosed with the monkeypox virus, the city’s Department of Health announced. The two were diagnosed with monkeypox over six weeks ago and had been hospitalized.
The two had several other health conditions, including weakened immune systems, city officials said. The two deaths were unrelated to each other, they said.
“Though the number of new MPV cases has declined substantially since summer, this is a stark reminder that MPV is dangerous and can cause serious illness, and in very rare cases, even death,” said Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady on Friday. “Our hearts go out to these individuals’ families and friends.”
Officials said they would not disclose any other information about the two cases, including where they were being treated, to protect their privacy.
The U.S. has reported over 27,000 cases and six total deaths due to monkeypox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monkeypox cases have been reported in all 50 states.
The first confirmed case of monkeypox in the U.S. was reported in Massachusetts in May.
Monkeypox symptoms usually start within three weeks of exposure to the virus and the illness typically lasts two to four weeks, according to the CDC.
People with monkeypox get a rash that may be located on or near the genitals or anus and could be on other areas like hands, feet, chest, face or mouth. Other symptoms can include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache and respiratory symptoms, according to the CDC.
Those infected may experience all or only a few symptoms. If someone has flue-like symptoms they will usually develop a rash one to four days later, the CDC says.
Officials said death due to monkeypox still remains rare. Among more than 75,000 cases reported in 2022, there have been 32 reported deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
“The vast majority of people with [monkeypox] who died have had other health conditions along with [monkeypox] causing severely weakened immune systems,” said Arwady.
She added, “Please continue to take it seriously. If you’re at risk of MPV infection, take prevention steps and get vaccinated to protect yourself and your loved ones. These measures are especially important if you have comorbidities and/or a weakened immune system.”
Chicago health officials encourage individuals who meet the eligibility criteria to get two doses of the monkeypox vaccine, 28 days apart.
(NEW YORK) — The Saturday night Powerball prize rose to an estimated $580 million, giving players a chance at winning the 10th largest jackpot in the game’s history. The prize has a cash value of $278.2 million.
The game has had 33 drawings in a row without a winner.
The Powerball jackpot was last won with a ticket in Pennsylvania, which won a $206.9 million jackpot on Aug. 3.
There have been a total of five Powerball jackpot winners this year.
The top winners from Wednesday night’s drawing include two tickets sold in Michigan and New Jersey that won $1 million each and a third ticket sold in New Jersey that won $2 million.
The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9 and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to a statement from Powerball.
The largest Powerball jackpot in the game’s history was $1.586 billion, won on Jan. 13, 2016. The winning tickets were sold in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a Powerball website.
(WASHINGTON) — Several police officers in Washington D.C. are facing allegations of police brutality and excessive force after video of a brutal arrest of two men went viral and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau is now investigating the incident as city leaders and activists call for swift action from D.C. Police.
Police responded to a report of possible gunshots in Southeast D.C. at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night when police say they located a stolen unoccupied vehicle with visible shell casings inside and the motor still running. Authorities tell ABC News, “a group of subjects approached the officers while they were searching the vehicle. A male in the group threatened ‘to smack’ a female police officer. In response, an officer pushed the male against a fence and took him into custody.”
The two men arrested were later identified as Ty’Jon “TJ” Jackson, 23, and Tejuan “TC” Colman, 30.
D.C. Councilmember Trayon White, who arrived on the scene an hour after the incident began told reporters on Friday, “this incident was totally unacceptable on so many levels.”
He noted that no one should threaten “to smack” an officer. However, he notes, that shouldn’t be the reasoning for an aggressive arrest.
“If a guy threatens a female officer, he does not deserve to be kicked in his upper body or face, right? One doesn’t equal the other. I think they have enough training. We have enough protocols, policies, and procedures to address situations and that’s not it. And it’s totally unacceptable. So if the police department is using that as an excuse to escalate violence, that is just not acceptable.”
DC police said both “individuals were transported to an area hospital for medical evaluation and have since been released back to MPD custody and will be presented in court today.”
Tejuan Colman’s mother, Aminah Saladin, told reporters on Friday that the situation “was heart wrenching, very disappointing. Anyone else could have been shot during that time. Their total focus was on a car that no one was actually in.”
(GREEENWOOD, Miss.) — The Mississippi community of Greenwood erected a towering statue Friday in honor of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy whose murder sparked much of the 20th century civil rights movement.
“I feel that when young people ask me what the memory of Emmett Till is, we have this statue as a memory,” Mississippi state Sen. David Jordan, who represents Greenwood, told ABC News. “He liberated all Black people for all that he sacrificed.”
The memorial statue stands at 9-feet tall — a bronze figure reminiscent of Till’s infamous portrait with a white button-down shirt, slacks and his left hand tipping his hat with a slight grin on his face.
The statue’s unveiling comes just a week after the release of “Till,” a film detailing the untold chapter of Till’s story centered around his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who championed civil rights activism following the murder of her son.
“This is a great day as we take another leap forward in recognizing the life and legacy of Emmett Till,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s only remaining family member who saw his cousin the night he was kidnapped, told ABC News.
Till, a Chicago native, was murdered in in August 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in a grocery store in Drew, Mississippi, about 40 miles north of Greenwood, the county seat in the Delta region. The two white men arrested for kidnapping, torturing and lynching the 14-year-old were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Till-Mobley insisted on an open-casket funeral for her son to allow the surrounding community to witness the torture inflicted onto her son. She became a prominent leader of the civil rights movement, adamant that her son should not have died in vain.
Jet Magazine published the daunting image of Till’s battered face that changed lives forever. Numerous Black publications, including The Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News and various others, were charged with moving the needle forward reporting on the atrocity.
“When I met Rosa Parks in 1961, she said she didn’t get out of that seat for Emmett Till,” Jordan said.
But there are still reminders of Mississippi’s segregated past everywhere. A Confederate monument stands outside the Greenwood courthouse’s lawn, only a few miles away from Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park where Till’s new statue is located.
“As so many people are determined to erase our history, we are blessed to have so many more allies in the struggle to keep our story alive,” Parker said. “This statue is affirmation that our lives matter.”
Despite the demographics of Greenwood and Leflore County being about 70% Black, it took state officials years to erect the statue. This year, Jordan was finally able to allocate $150,000 in state funding to commission Utah artist Matt Glen to sculpt the statue.
“I am elated that it happened here in Mississippi, and this is a glorious day for all of the people in Greenwood, Mississippi,” Jordan said.
ABC News’ Fatima Curry and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — One of the first Texas state troopers to arrive at the scene of the May 24 elementary school mass shooting is being fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety, a spokesperson told ABC News.
“The department can confirm Sgt. Juan Maldonado was served with termination papers today,” a spokesperson for Texas DPS said.
Sgt. Juan Maldonado is one of seven members of Texas DPS whose conduct was being investigated by the DPS inspector general because of their actions or inaction during the shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and two of their teachers.
DPS announced Sept. 6 that five DPS officers on-site at Robb had been referred to the IG. That number grew to seven.
Maldonado is the first one disciplined and the IG probe into him was the first one completed, the official said.
“We expect more of our troopers,” the official said.
Security camera footage revealed that Maldonado held the door open to the school open and stood idly by when another officer ran out of the building bleeding, begging others to go in. Maldonado was accused of not following active shooter protocol.
Maldonado was a 23-year veteran of the state agency and public information officer for the region. Maldonado did not respond to ABC News for comment.
Some family members of Robb Elementary School victims have already been notified.
Berlinda Arreola, step grandmother to Amerie Jo Garza who was on the children killed, told ABC News that it was “disappointing,” that the police officers had not entered the classroom,
“He’s been a member of the community for years and he had the chance to go in and save the children and teachers of a community that he knew so well,” Arreola said.
The DPS internal investigation prompted new DPS protocols to be enacted. Now, policy dictates that once an “active shooter” is declared at a school, the situation cannot be treated as anything else by Texas DPS personnel until the shooter or shooters are neutralized. According to the new rules, all DPS personnel are ordered to override any other law enforcement officers who are standing in the way of taking active measures to neutralize a school shooter.
McCraw is scheduled to testify about the Robb Elementary response and probe during a hearing Thursday in Austin.
ABC News’ Kate Holland contributed to this report.
(MIAMI) — A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case.
The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the “opening salvo” by Florida’s newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.
Robert Lee Wood, who faced one count of making a false affirmation on a voter application, and one count of voting as an unqualified elector, had his charges dismissed on the grounds that the prosecutor lacked appropriate jurisdiction.
Wood was facing up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines and fees, for allegedly illegally voting in the 2020 election.
When the charges were announced on Aug. 18, DeSantis said at a press conference that local prosecutors had been “loath” to take up election fraud cases.
“Now we have the ability with the attorney general and statewide prosecutor to bring those [cases] on behalf of the state of Florida,” he said.
But a judge found on Friday that the statewide prosecutor did not have jurisdiction over one case in Miami. Statewide prosecutors, which are an extension of the Attorney General’s office, are prosecuting all of the election fraud cases that were brought in August.
In order for the statewide prosecutor to have jurisdiction, the crimes alleged must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
The judge agreed with the defense’s argument that the alleged violations, applying to vote and voting while ineligible, only occurred in Miami-Dade County. Thus, the statewide prosecutor was found to not have jurisdiction.
Statewide prosecutors argued that the alleged crimes were committed in Leon County in addition to Miami-Dade County, because the defendants’ applications and votes were later transmitted to the Department of State in Tallahassee.
The defense argued the alleged offenses only happened in Miami-Dade.
The judge sided with the defense, even citing Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” in his order granting the motion to dismiss.
“His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings,” the judge wrote in his order, in reference to the statewide prosecutor.
“How much wider even than that does [the statewide prosecutor] seek to extend its reach?”
“It is an old truth that all politics is local,” the judge added. “[The statewide prosecutor] seeks to stand that old truth on its head”
Larry Davis, the attorney for Wood, said that his motion to dismiss on grounds of jurisdiction has been circulated to attorneys representing the other election fraud defendants.
The statewide prosecutor can now appeal the case. If unsuccessful, the Democratic Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle will also have the option to file charges.
Just days before Florida’s primary in August, DeSantis said at a press conference that 20 people who had cast their ballots in 2020 had been charged with voter fraud. They had all been convicted of murder or felony sex offenses, DeSantis added, which by Florida law stripped them of their right to vote.
“Yet they went ahead and voted anyways. That is against the law, and now they’re going to pay the price for it,” the governor said.
Those charged with illegally voting were sent voting cards by the state, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Many of them told agents that they believed they were eligible, according to court records.
That includes Wood, who was charged with second-degree murder in 1991. Wood registered to vote in 2020 after being approached by a voter rights advocate at a grocery store. Wood claimed he did not fill out the form, rather he just signed it, according to the affidavit of arrest filled out by an FDLE agent.
The form includes a section which asks the applicant to either verify that they are not a felon, or if so, to declare that their right to vote had been restored.
Voter rights advocates say that provision is especially confusing because of the passage of Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution in 2018, which restored all felons their rights to vote except for those convicted of sex felonies or murder charges.
Later, another condition was added requiring voters with felonies to pay off their fines and fees before having their rights restored.
Republican Florida state legislator Jeff Brandes, who authored Amendment 4, criticized the 20 arrests in a tweet during DeSantis’ press conference, urging the state to look at the intent of the voters.
“It was our intent that those ineligible would be granted some grace by the state if they registered without intent to commit voter fraud,” he tweeted on Aug. 18.
Mark Earley, president of Florida’s election supervisor association, told ABC News that the local supervisors do not have the resources to check a prospective voter’s criminal record. That is the Department of State’s obligation, he said.
Election supervisors check the applications and then transmit them to Tallahassee, where Division of Elections’ staff can check convictions against voter rolls.
Unless an election supervisor receives a packet from the Department of State which contains information that says a voter is ineligible, the voter is sent a voting card, Earley said.
But due to a backlog, as described by a Divisions of Elections official in a 2020 federal case, Florida was “struggling” to come up with a process to identify ineligible felons, The Tampa Bay Times reported.
It’s unclear if the Department of State ever sent those packets to local election officials. But local election officials sent all 20 voter cards to the arrested voters, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The former head of the Office of Election Crimes and Security Pete Antonacci, sent a letter reviewed by ABC News to local elections supervisors on the day of the governor’s announcement, telling them “through no fault of your own” convicted felons voted in their counties.
Neil Volz, the director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who helped Brandes with Amendment 4, said in a statement that Friday’s ruling, “strengthens our resolve to continue to place people over politics.”
The ruling in Wood’s case is the first disposition of the 18 cases that were announced by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, following the DeSantis announcement.
(MIAMI) — A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case.
The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the “opening salvo” by Florida’s newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.
Robert Lee Wood, who faced one count of making a false affirmation on a voter application, and one count of voting as an unqualified elector, had his charges dismissed on the grounds that the prosecutor lacked jurisdiction to bring them.
Wood was facing up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines and fees, for allegedly illegally voting in the 2020 election.
When the charges were announced on Aug 18, DeSantis said local prosecutors had been “loath” to take up election fraud cases.
“Well, now we have the ability with the attorney general and statewide prosecutor to bring those on behalf of the State of Florida,” he added at the press conference.
But a judge found on Friday that the statewide prosecutor did not have jurisdiction over one case in Miami.
In order for the statewide prosecutor to have jurisdiction, the crimes alleged must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
The judge found with the defense, which argued that the act of applying to vote and voting only occurred in Miami Dade. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor.
In order for the Attorney General’s office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
State prosecutors argued that the crimes were committed in Leon County in addition to Miami Dade County, because the defendants’ applications and votes were later transmitted to the Department of State in Tallahassee.
The defense argued the alleged offenses only happened in Miami Dade.
The judge found with the defense.
Larry Davis, the attorney for Wood, said that his motion to dismiss on grounds of jurisdiction has been circulated to attorneys representing the other election fraud defendants.
The statewide prosecutor can now appeal the case. If unsuccessful, a similar case could be brought by the Democrat Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez.
(NEW YORK) — The 20-year-old Purdue University student stabbed to death in his dorm room was effusive, close with his family and wise beyond his years, according to his parents.
Varun Manish Chheda, a senior majoring in data science, was found dead in his room on the school’s West Lafayette, Indiana, campus on Oct. 5 after his roommate called 911, university police said. The roommate, 22-year-old Ji “Jimmy” Min Sha, was arrested and charged with Chheda’s murder.
Although Varun was a busy college student, he always stayed in touch with his mom, dad and little sister. He’d call his mom between classes, share his Wordle score with her, and check in over text each morning and night, his mother, Seema Dedhiya, told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
On Varun’s final night alive, Dedhiya said she texted her son her usual evening message: “Eat well, sleep well. … Finish your homework.”
“He said, ‘Yes, Mom, I’ve done it all,'” she recalled.
She said Varun’s final text to her at 11:45 p.m. read, “Goodnight, Mama.”
Early on the morning of Oct. 5, two police officers came to the family’s door in Indianapolis with the tragic news. The 20-year-old suffered multiple stab wounds in an “unprovoked” attack, according to Purdue University Chief of Police Lesley Weite.
Seema Dedhiya and her husband, Manish Chheda, said they had no sense of problems with Varun’s roommate and said their son rarely mentioned him. They described Varun as a peacemaker, which they said made his violent death all the more shocking.
Varun was a minimalist and environmentalist. He never asked his parents for money and insisted he didn’t need a nicer car or nicer computer, they said.
He was passionate about Taekwondo, strategy games and especially science, said his father, Manish Chheda.
Varun was recently studying medical genomics and “was even thinking maybe of following in my footsteps and becoming a physician,” he said.
“How it would’ve turned out, we just only can guess at this point,” he said. “I think he would’ve been involved in … helping people face-to-face or in a research realm.”
He was a kind big brother and a thoughtful friend, his dad said, recalling the time Varun encouraged a friend to donate his long hair to cancer survivors.
“We think he did a lot of good in the time he had,” Manish Chheda said. “We’re proud of that.”
Asked what she’ll miss most, Dedhiya replied through tears: his laugh, his hugs, “his brilliance” and “all the conversations.”
“I miss him terribly,” Dedhiya said.
Manish Chheda said he doesn’t know when he’ll “be psychologically ready” to return to his work as a doctor.
“I need to be more focused than I am right now. We’re gonna get help, we’re gonna get counseling,” he said.
The family will “never be normal again,” but he said he hopes they’ll find a “new normal.”
“You can’t lose someone like this and ever get over it. But we have to try,” he said.
Sha has not entered a plea. As he headed to his first court appearance on Oct. 7, Sha told reporters “I am very sorry” when asked if he had a message to the victim’s family. Sha also said, “I was blackmailed,” but did not elaborate.
His defense attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
