(HALTOM CITY, Texas) — Two people were shot and killed and four others injured, including three police officers, Saturday night in Haltom City, Texas, police said.
Sgt. Rick Alexander of Haltom City police said during a briefing that the three officers did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, as one officer was hit in the right arm, finger and leg, a second male officer was hit in both legs and a third officer was hit in the upper thigh.
At a press conference on Sunday, Alexander identified the three injured cops as Cpl. Zach Tabler, and officers Tim Barton and Jose Avila.
An elderly female had called 911 and police arrived at the residence, where officers returned fire during the incident, Alexander said. The elderly female sustained non-life-threatening injuries. A woman was found dead in the home and a man was found dead outside, Alexander said.
Officers said the elderly female’s call was crucial because they entered a situation where the gunman ambushed them.
“If they wouldn’t have been prepared, this situation could have turned out a lot worse,” Haltom City Police Chief Cody Phillips said. “There could have been several officers deceased over not being able to respond correctly.”
Alexander identified the suspected gunman as 28-year-old Edward Freyman. Police said they returned fire, forcing the suspect to flee. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Freyman had a military style rifle and a handgun near him, according to the Haltom City Police Department.
The relationship between the victims and the shooter is not yet known, but officers confirmed that the three people — the two deceased and the suspected shooter — knew each another.
“The main concern is getting the scene secure, trying to get to our officers, be able to get them out of harm’s way while also trying to keep containment on the suspect,” Alexander said, WFAA reported.
The Texas Rangers are taking over the investigation.
ABC News’ Izzy Alvarez and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — A 5-year-old child was killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday that also injured an 8-year-old in a Houston neighborhood, Houston Police said.
Police received several phone calls around 1 a.m., saying there was a shooting in the city’s Greenspoint area, but when they arrived, they didn’t find anything, Asst. Chief Chandra Hatcher told reporters early Sunday.
About 15 minutes later, officers got word that two children arrived at an area hospital with gunshot wounds. The 8-year-old child is expected to fully recover from their injuries, Hatcher said.
Both children were reportedly in a car at a stop sign when a person in another vehicle began shooting, witnesses told authorities. Their mother reportedly drove them to the hospital.
Police are investigating the incident and looking at footage from surveillance cameras to aid in the investigation. A suspect is not in custody, police said.
Authorities are unsure if the two children were the intended targets.
“We do not know a motive,” Hatcher said.
Police described the suspect’s vehicle as dark-colored and added that there may have been two people in it.
“If anyone knows information, please come forward and please continue to pray for the family of the deceased child and the injured 8-year-old,” Hatcher said.
(VADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minn.) — The bodies of three young children and their mother were pulled from a Minnesota lake during a two-day search in what is being investigated as a possible triple murder-suicide, authorities said.
Law enforcement responded to Vadnais-Sucker Lake Regional Park in Vadnais Heights Friday afternoon in response to a welfare check requested on the woman and children, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The woman’s car and items including the children’s shoes were found at the scene, prompting responding deputies and officers to close the park and begin searching the area and water, the sheriff’s office said.
The first child was pulled out of the lake around 7:30 p.m. Friday and declared dead following life-saving measures, authorities said. The second child was located around midnight and declared dead. Responders continued to look for the remaining child and woman until 3 a.m.
Ramsey County Sheriff Water Patrol searching Vandnais Lake—family members running to scene—being kept back by police. The medical examiner has arrived. We’re waiting for an update. @kstppic.twitter.com/kZPUfce7wu
The search resumed at 6 a.m. Saturday. The woman was located around 10:40 a.m., and the third child about 20 minutes later, the sheriff’s office said. Both were declared dead.
All three children — two boys and a girl — are believed to be under the age of 6. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner will release the names of the four found and their manner and cause of death at a later date.
“There is nothing more tragic than the loss of children,” Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told reporters Friday, saying that the responders would be searching “long into the night.”
Distraught family and friends had gathered outside the police perimeter while the search was underway Friday, ABC affiliate KSTP in Saint Paul, Minnesota, reported.
The welfare check at the lake is believed to be connected to another death investigation in a nearby city in Ramsey County, the sheriff’s office said. On Friday morning, Maplewood police officers and firefighters responding to the report of a possible suicide in a residential area found a man dead at the scene.
After responding to that report, authorities then began searching for the mother and three children, ultimately tracking the mother’s cellphone to the lake, Ramsey County Undersheriff Mike Martin told reporters during a briefing Saturday.
“Our hearts go out to the families involved here and their friends,” Martin said. “Our goal was to find the children and the mother and to return them to their families, and we’re glad that we were able to do that.”
No further information was released on the connection between the two death investigations.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Pete Arredondo, the embattled police chief of the school district where 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting, is resigning from his city council post, city officials said.
A local newspaper in Uvalde, Texas, first reported Arredondo’s decision to resign, which city officials later confirmed.
Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, served as incident commander during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24. He has faced criticism and calls for his resignation as chief from parents and the Uvalde community over the police response and delay in breaching the classrooms where the gunman carried out the attack.
Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council in early May and sworn in days after the school shooting. He told the Uvalde Leader-News on Friday he plans to resign from his city council post, according to the local newspaper.
Following the report’s publication, the city of Uvalde said it had not seen a letter of resignation or spoken to Arredondo. The Uvalde city manager’s office told ABC News Saturday afternoon that the city council had just received his written resignation. The city called his resignation “the right thing to do.”
In his resignation letter obtained by ABC News, Arredondo said that “it is in the best interest of the community to step down as a member of the City Council for District 3 to minimize further distractions.”
“The Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff must continue to move forward to unite our community, once again,” he continued.
Arredondo and his representatives have not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The news comes after the Uvalde City Council last week denied Arredondo’s request for a leave of absence from future meetings, in an effort to be more transparent following criticisms of law enforcement’s handling of the shooting.
Arredondo has not been present at three meetings since he was sworn in, including a heated hearing on Thursday during which families of victims demanded more information on what happened that tragic day.
The school district placed Arredondo on administrative leave last week, effective immediately, amid multiple ongoing investigations into the shooting.
Arredondo defended the police response in a rare interview with The Texas Tribune last month.
“Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” Arredondo told the paper. “We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced.”
He added, “Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”
He also told the paper he did not consider himself the commanding officer on the scene that day.
During an emotional school board meeting last week, parents and community members called for Arredondo’s resignation. Several argued that law enforcement should be held partly accountable for the tragedy due to what was described as inadequate decision-making.
Nineteen law enforcement officers waited 77 minutes in the hallway outside the classroom containing the gunman, after Arredondo wrongly believed that the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, law enforcement has said.
Arredondo testified last week for almost five hours during a hearing on the shooting held during an executive session by the Texas state House of Representatives. A special Texas state Senate panel is also currently conducting a probe into the shooting.
The Uvalde district attorney is also investigating the shooting, and the U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the law enforcement response.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo, Teddy Grant, Samira Said and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the largest migrant caravan this year makes its way through Mexico toward the United States, numerous organizations on both sides of the border are trying to support the several thousand immigrants seeking asylum.
For people like Estefanía Rebellón, who runs a school within a shelter for migrants in Tijuana, the work is personal.
“When I was 10 years old, my parents had to travel to the United States from Colombia to seek asylum,” Rebellón told ABC News. “I know what it’s like to be transported from your home to a completely unknown place.”
Rebellón runs a school called Yes We Can, which provides free education to children five days a week while their families are preparing to cross the border into the United States.
This week, the Supreme Court voted to overturn the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, which required migrants seeking asylum and traveling through Mexico from a third country to return to Mexico while awaiting their court dates. The Biden administration has rarely enforced the policy and has said it seeks to end it.
Far more consequential has been former President Donald Trump’s policy called Title 42, which allows border officials to turn migrants seeking asylum away due to the health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the American Immigration Council, over 1.8 million people have been expelled as a result.
Recently more than 50 people died in an alleged migrant smuggling operation in San Antonio, Texas, in what Homeland Security Investigations has called the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history.
Willie, a third-generation coyote, the colloquial term for a person who smuggles migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, says that he has no qualms about his profession.
“Nothing in this life is safe,” Willie, who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym, told ABC News’ Maria Elena Salinas. “Right now, [there are] people who are helping their families and have thanked me for it.”
“For some it’s illegal. For us it’s legal,” he added of his illegal activities.
In Deming, New Mexico, 35 miles from the U.S. Mexico border, Ariana Saludares runs a pop-up shelter for migrants called Colores United.
Some who are dropped at her shelter have applied for asylum and are legally awaiting their claims; others have requested humanitarian parole. The shelter, which receives around 50 migrants twice a week, runs out of a number of local hotels.
Saludares says that, while she would love to have a permanent space for a shelter, the local hotels she operates out of are her only option.
“There’s no other space that’s available to us,” said Saludares. “We hope that will change one day, but we can’t wait. We need a shelter. And we need it now.”
Benny Jasso, the mayor of Deming is specifically concerned that removing Title 42 would mean an influx of migrants that he says the city cannot handle.
“What I’m concerned with is, are we going to be able to process them?” he told Salinas.
“We do not have the volunteer base right now to establish a shelter.”
He says that Deming currently receives no federal resources to help house the asylum seekers they receive.
What might be a concern to some, like added safety risks, are not a concern for Deming’s police chief Clint Hogan.
“We don’t have any issues… at all,” he told Salinas during an interview.
Marisa Ugarte is the founder and executive director of the human rights non-profit Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, based in California.
Ugarte has helped people such as “Maria,” who is a survivor of abuse at the hands of people who promised to smuggle her safely across the border.
“Maria,” who is using a pseudonym due to safety concerns, was brought from El Salvador to Sonora, Mexico, where instead of finding safety she says she was repeatedly drugged and raped.
She finally managed to escape and fled to a shelter where she was helped by the workers, who encouraged her to make the trip to the U.S.
“Thank God I’m okay, even though I almost died,” “Maria” told Salinas. “But God never abandoned me.”
Maria was taken to meet Ugarte, who helped her obtain asylum in the U.S. For Ugarte, who has supported countless women in similar situations, the notion that people immigrating to the U.S. should do so the proverbial “right way,” waiting for whatever legal means are available at the time, is flawed.
“What is the right way?” she said. “If you’re running from violence and from dying, what is the right way?”
(NEW YORK) — World UFO Day is an annual affair that has captured the interest of many enthusiastic alien believers and recognized globally with parades, scientific discussion, and occasionally pointy tinfoil hats.
It takes place every July 2 to commemorate the anniversary of the alleged 1947 Unidentified Flying Object crash in Roswell, New Mexico. The original report hailed the crashed object as a “flying disk.” Later, the U.S. Army called it a UFO accident, but ultimately, the Pentagon claimed it was a balloon wreck. To this day, many don’t accept that account and have urged the government to declassify information.
Since 2001, people worldwide have celebrated the day, but it takes various forms. Science museums, restaurants, and entire towns hold their own events to commemorate the day.
Some Ufologists, or UFO researchers, voice concern with how the day is observed. Instead of the tinfoil hat-wearing that has been documented at past parades, those such as Ronald James hope for “meaningful discussions and awareness,” to come out of the day. James is the media relations director of Mutual UFO Network, a nonprofit which investigates reported UFO sightings around the world.
“We think anything that brings awareness to the topic is good, but we also again are dedicated to the scientific understanding of the subject,” James told ABC Audio. “World UFO Day is absolutely awesome, just because it’s bringing attention to the whole topic.”
The official World UFO Day goal is “to celebrate the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life”, according to the event’s website. One of the proposed actions to celebrate is to “watch the sky together and spot strange objects flying around,” which is exactly what one branch of MUFON plans to do. The Missouri MUFON Chapter is holding a “sky watch” Saturday at 7 p.m. in Kansas City, to locate potential UFOs.
According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, 65% of Americans believe that aliens exist. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives held a hearing on UFOs and the possible vulnerabilities they generate. This was something that MUFON’s 4000-plus members advocated for since its founding in 1969 and was the first time the House had done so in 50 years.
“We were happy that the hearings happened. MUFON was in Washington,” James said. “We were involved in helping to push this forward and we’re actually in Washington a lot right now dealing with politicians.”
For those living in Roswell, New Mexico, the site of the alleged crash that sparked this all, awareness is just a slight part of the celebration. Ufologists will speak about their take on the government’s role in investigating alleged UFO sightings, but more so, the day is an economic opportunity presented by their annual UFO Festival, which now marks 75 years since the Roswell incident.
This year, its festival will take place Friday through Sunday and will feature a parade, concert, speakers, food, tours, and more, making it the biggest celebration of World UFO Day anywhere, with a history that spans long before World UFO Day became a global phenomenon.
(NEW YORK) — A 23-year-old victim onboard a tractor-trailer involved in an alleged smuggling incident in San Antonio was released from the hospital, according to University Health Hospital. Another adolescent male remains in critical condition, according to the hospital. The smuggling incident left 53 people dead after they were trapped in a tractor-trailer.
The Bexar County medical examiner’s office has conclusively identified 19 of the victims killed, the office said Saturday. The victims’ ages range between 13 and 38. Of these 19 victims, eight were citizens of Mexico, six were citizens of Guatemala and five were citizens of Honduras.
The office is unsure of whether the victims’ next of kin have not been informed yet, so their names have not yet been released.
The office has also made 30 potential identifications, but is awaiting confirmation of these cases from the victims’ respective consulates. Four of the victims remain unidentified, according to the medical examiner’s office.
One of four men facing federal charges in connection with the alleged smuggling incident appeared in court Thursday. Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, of Pasadena, Texas, is charged with one count of alien smuggling resulting in death. He is suspected of being the driver of the truck that was found in San Antonio on Monday.
Zamorano could face up to life in prison or the death penalty.
Court documents show Zamorano will be held in the custody of the United States Marshal without bond until he appears again in court on July 6. Zamorano was appointed a public defender.
Investigators say Zamorano was apprehended at the scene after trying to pass himself off as one of the migrants. Police were able to recover a phone, a hat and a wallet that contained an ID belonging to Zamorano, court documents show.
Using surveillance footage from the truck’s immigration checkpoint border crossing, officials from Homeland Security Investigations say they were able to determine that Zamorano was the driver. The driver was seen in surveillance footage wearing a black shirt with white or grey stripes and a hat. HSI officials say they verified Zamorano was wearing the same clothing.
Zamorano was taken to a local hospital for a medical evaluation after he was apprehended.
According to court documents, responding HSI agents initially found 48 people dead inside and around the tractor-trailer. Of those found dead, authorities say 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala, two from Honduras and 17 of unknown origins, who officials suspect are undocumented.
Officials said 16 people were hospitalized.
According to court documents, there were 64 individuals suspected of being in the country illegally in connection to this alleged smuggling incident.
Of the 53 bodies in the custody of the medical examiner’s office, 40 are male and 13 are female, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday.
Rebeca Clay-Flores, the Bexar County Precinct 1 commissioner, said at a press conference Tuesday that some of those found are under the age of 18, likely teenagers.
Clay-Flores, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and representatives from the county medical examiner’s office met with Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs Mario Búcaro, three Guatemalan consuls, representatives from the Embassy of Mexico and Consul General of El Salvador Fátima Margarita Flores on Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office said Thursday.
The medical examiner’s office said they would release information on the number and nationality of confirmed identities as they become available. Names and identifying information will not be released until their foreign country’s consulate or embassy confirms their next of kin has been notified.
On Tuesday, police arrested Christian Martinez, 28, in Palestine, Texas, alleging he was in contact with Zamorano about the alleged smuggling operation.
Two other men, Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez and Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao, were arrested in connection with the truck deaths on gun charges. They were identified as unauthorized migrants in possession of multiple weapons, according to federal authorities.
The incident unfolded in the southern Texas city on Monday evening at around 5:50 p.m. local time, when a nearby worker heard a cry for help and found the tractor-trailer with the doors partially opened and the bodies of 46 people inside, according to San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus and San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood.
“They suffered, horrendously, could have been for hours,” Hood said.
(NEW YORK) — The East Coast is getting hit with severe weather this holiday weekend.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for the Carolinas as a storm moves through the region, while millions of people are bracing for severe storms in the Northeast.
The National Hurricane Center named its third storm of the 2022 season earlier Saturday. Tropical Storm Colin formed “rather unexpectedly,” according to the center, and while not strong it could create holiday weekend disruptions in the Carolinas.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect from just south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, through Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on the Outer Banks. There is a flash flooding risk, with around 2 inches to as much as 6 inches of rain possible in some of the downpours across the eastern Carolinas.
The storm has already brought wind gusts exceeding 40 mph along the South Carolina coast as it moved through, with gusty winds and rain expected across southeastern North Carolina throughout the afternoon.
“The most significant storm impacts (rain & wind) will remain at the beaches and offshore today,” the National Weather Service said.
The storm is expected to slowly progress northeastward Saturday into Sunday and eventually move out to sea by Monday.
Meanwhile, cities including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston have the potential for storms with damaging winds and hail Saturday afternoon. Some 50 million people are currently in the zone with the greatest severe weather threat today.
The National Weather Service warned that the Philadelphia region into southern New Jersey and the coast could see thunderstorms with flash flooding and damaging wind gusts Saturday evening.
⛈️ Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop by late this afternoon and evening. The most likely chances for rain will be from around the Philly area and southeast into Delmarva, southern NJ, and the coast. #PAwx#NJwx#DEwx#MDwxpic.twitter.com/nGeQdtZBk8
A flood watch is also in effect for the Washington and Baltimore metro areas. Damaging wind gusts and large hail are also a threat, the National Weather Service said.
Holiday travel out of the Northeast could be impacted as the storms come through. Weather will likely not be a major factor at airport hubs like Atlanta, Chicago, Denver or Los Angeles on Saturday.
ABC News’ Daniel Amarante contributed to this report.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Thousands of dead anchovies washed ashore on the Bolinas Lagoon shore in Marin County, California, and fell from the sky earlier this week, according to photos and video shared with ABC News’ San Francisco affiliate, ABC7 News, KGO.
“This is just one of those times where we kind of get to see just the sheer number of the size of these schools of fish,” Marin County Parks director Max Korten told ABC7 News. “So it’s kind of amazing.”
There is still uncertainty about why the fish washed up on the shore. Referencing biologists, Korten explained, “What likely happened is, you know, some kind of predator out in the ocean encountered a school of anchovy somewhere near the mouth of Bolinas Lagoon,” according to ABC7 News.
He said this possibly pushed the anchovy more toward the shallow water, where they sucked up the limited oxygen and suffocated, according to ABC7 News.
A volunteer researcher told ABC7 News the anchovy could have been going where the food is.
Jim Ervin told ABC7 this La Nina year is generating more food production and the foraging fish are following. He explained the cool water is bringing in more anchovy than seen in the last 10 years off the coast and in the bay.
Ervin said seabirds are feasting. “There’s more fish than they know what to do with,” he told ABC7 News.
Officials said there is no reason to panic over the mass die-off, saying similar events have happened several times over the last few decades.
“My biggest words of assurance, I guess, is that anchovy populations boom and bust,” Ervin told ABC7 News. “And we’re in a boom year. Then things like that, they drive ’em into the shore and unfortunately they do themselves in sometimes.”
Korten with Marin County Parks told ABC7 News the Bolinas Lagoon as a pretty fragile ecosystem and is encouraging anyone wanting to see the anchovies, to be mindful of the environment.
“It’s a home to a really abundant amount of marine life,” he said. “We just asked if anybody goes near there, just use caution and not to disturb the animals, the seals and things that make their home there.”
ABC News’ Amanda del Castillo, Jeffrey Cook and Jennifer Metz contributed to this report.
(ALLEN, Ky.) –Three Kentucky police officers were shot and killed after a 49-year-old man, who is in custody, allegedly gunned them down and wounded several others in a mass shooting at his Kentucky home.
The City of Prestonburg Police Department shared in a Facebook post Friday that canine handler Jacob R. Chaffins had died.
“You have dedicated your short time on this earth to the service of the citizens of Prestonsburg and the Commonwealth as an EMT, Fire Fighter, and Police Officer. You further dedicated yourself to the security of our country as a valiant soldier,” the statement read.
“The lives you’ve saved since you even started policing are innumerable, and that’s how you gave your life – saving another. We will shine your light to Paisley and the world so long as we breathe. Rest yourself, we have the watch.”
The two other slain officers were identified by the sheriff’s office as Deputy William Petry and Prestonsburg Police Capt. Ralph Frasure.
The shooting unfolded in Floyd County at about 6:44 p.m. local time Thursday, Kentucky State Police said. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called it a “barricade situation.”
According to an arrest report, Lance Storz, who was armed with a rifle, fired multiple rounds at police officers around his home, killing two officers and a police K9.
The arrest report said five other officers and an emergency management director were injured, though state police said four officers and one civilian were hurt.
“Floyd County and our brave first responders suffered a tragic loss last night,” the governor tweeted Friday. “I want to ask all of Kentucky to join me in praying for this community. This is a tough morning for our commonwealth.”
Floyd County and our brave first responders suffered a tragic loss last night. I want to ask all of Kentucky to join me in praying for this community. This is a tough morning for our commonwealth. ^AB
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) July 1, 2022
Storz is in custody on multiple charges including murder of a police officer and attempted murder of a police officer. He entered a plea of not guilty and is being held on $10 million bond. Storz returns to court on July 11.
ABC News’ Jason Volack and Ahmad J. Hemingway contributed to this report.
