National

(HOUSTON) — The customer who fatally shot a masked robber inside a Houston taqueria and returned the stolen money to terrified diners is now the subject of a grand jury probe after he came forward for questioning, police said Monday.

Graphic security video from The Ranchito #4 taqueria in southwest Houston captured the customer pulling a pistol and turning the tables on the bandit as he circled the restaurant demanding customers to fork over their wallets while threatening them with what appeared to be a real handgun.

The footage showed the defiant customer pulling his weapon and firing from his seat at a booth, where he was dining with a man, hitting the robber multiple times in the back as some of the patrons dove under tables. The assailant collapsed near the front of the restaurant before the patron who shot him got up, stood over him and fired one more time point blank, the video shows.

At least nine gunshots could be heard on the video. No one else was injured in the incident.

The 46-year-old customer was questioned by Houston police homicide detectives on Monday, the Houston Police Department said in a statement.

“After consulting with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, it was determined the shooting will be referred to a grand jury,” the statement reads. “Since the male is not arrested or charged, his identity is not being released.”

The alleged robber who was killed was identified by police Monday as 30-year-old Eric Eugene Washington.

The shooting unfolded around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday as ten customers were dining inside the taqueria, according to the Houston Police Department.

“Witnesses told officers the suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a pistol at patrons as he demanded their money. As the suspect collected money from patrons, one of the patrons, described as a white or Hispanic male, produced a gun of his own and shot the suspect multiple times,” police said in a statement.

The gun the robber used to menace diners turned out to be a toy gun, police said. At the time of the robbery, the suspect was dressed all in black, including a black ski mask and black gloves, according to police.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, authorities said.

“The shooter collected the stolen money from the suspect and returned the money to other patrons. He and other patrons (victims) then fled the scene,” police said.

The security video shows the armed customer picking up the robber’s weapon and throwing it against a wall.

The customer agreed to be questioned by police after detectives seeking to identify him released a surveillance image of him and his pickup truck. Police asked other patrons who left the scene without providing officers a statement to also come forward.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — A 6-year-old student took a handgun from his home, put it in his backpack and brought it to his Newport News, Virginia, elementary school where he allegedly shot and injured a teacher, according to police.

Police have interviewed the 6-year-old and his mother in the wake of Friday’s shooting at Richneck Elementary School and determined the gun was legally purchased by the boy’s mother, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said at a news conference Monday. The gun was in their home, and the 6-year-old “obtained that firearm,” put it in his backpack and brought it to school, Drew said.

The 6-year-old is accused of shooting 25-year-old teacher Abigail Zwerner in a first grade classroom, police said.

She was initially hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

“Abigail wanted me to tell you all … that she is in stable condition and she is thankful for the thoughts and prayers,” Drew said Monday.

Zwerner was giving class instruction when the student pointed the gun at her and fired one round, Drew said, adding that there was no physical struggle or fight.

Zwerner took a defensive position and raised her hand, and the bullet went through her hand and then into her chest, the chief said.

After Zwerner was shot, she ushered all of her students out of the classroom, the chief said, adding that she was the last person to leave that class.

The chief called Zwerner “a hero,” and said she’s repeatedly asked how her students are doing.

No students were injured and the 6-year-old suspect was taken into custody.

The 6-year-old suspect was taken to a hospital for evaluation, Drew said. A temporary detention order was obtained and the child is currently receiving treatment at a medical facility, Drew said Monday.

A motive has not been released. Authorities haven’t elaborated on the altercation between the student and teacher but the police chief told reporters Friday that the shooting was not accidental.

Asked by CNN on Sunday what will happen next for the suspect and if the 6-year-old’s parents could be held responsible, Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones replied, “There’s a lot of questions that we have to answer.”

“Because it remains an investigation, we’re going to let itself work out before we rush to judgment at this time,” Jones said. “The individuals responsible will be held accountable — I can promise that.”

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira and Ben Siu contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CINCINNATI) — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been released from a Cincinnati hospital, one week after he suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed during a Monday Night Football game.

Hamlin, who had his heart restarted on the field, has returned to Buffalo for further treatment at another hospital, doctors said on a conference call Monday afternoon. He is now being treated at Buffalo General, according to Hamlin.

“We are thrilled and proud to share that Damar Hamlin has been released from the hospital and returned to Buffalo,” University of Cincinnati Medical Center said in a statement. “He is doing well and this is the next stage of his recovery.”

Hamlin tweeted minutes after the press conference that he was returning to Buffalo.

“Headed home to Buffalo today with a lot of love on my heart. Watching the world come together around me on Sunday was truly an amazing feeling,” he wrote. “The same love you all have shown me is the same love that I plan to put back into the world n more.”

Hamlin collapsed suddenly after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins on Jan. 2. He was quickly surrounded by medical personnel, who performed CPR and restarted his heart before being loaded into an ambulance and taken to the nearby hospital. The game was suspended and later canceled.

He also thanked his doctors in a tweet Monday afternoon: “Grateful for the awesome care I received at UCMC. Happy to be back in Buffalo. The docs and nurses at Buffalo General have already made me feel at home!”

Hamlin, 24, had his breathing tube removed early Friday morning and was up and walking around the medical unit the same day, Drs. Timothy Pritts and William Knight said at Monday’s conference

“We are mostly grateful for how well Damar has done,” Pritts said.

The doctors also said that Hamlin did not suffer any brain damage and has made good progress with his physical therapy.

Knight said some of Hamlin’s teammates accompanied him to the airport in Cincinnati.

In Buffalo, Hamlin will remain under strict care.

“He is going to be observed and monitored to ensure that there is no impact of the flight on his condition or on his lungs,” Knight said, adding that Hamlin will undergo tests to try to determine the cause of the collapse.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott said at Monday’s press conference he’d gotten a chance to go see Hamlin in the hospital before coming to the team facility.

“Super excited he’s back in Buffalo. Had a chance to see him a few minutes ago,” McDermott said. “He’s doing well, a little bit tired, but good to see him for the first time in person for a little bit.”

“He seemed happy to be back in Buffalo, in a familiar place to him,” he added. “He’s taking it one step at a time.”

The NFL honored Hamlin across the league on Sunday, the first day of games since his collapse. Players around the league wore “Love for Damar” T-shirts during pregame, while the Bills wore a No. 3 patch on their jerseys.

The Bills returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in their game against the New England Patriots and went on to win 35-24 to lock up the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.

Hamlin, in his second year out of the University of Pittsburgh, shared a photo with his parents from his hospital bed a half hour before game time Sunday and tweeted several times as he watched the Bills and the tributes around the league.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating the Jan. 8 death of a pregnant woman who was shot inside of a vehicle in an Amazon Fulfillment Center parking lot in Lakeville, Minnesota. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital that evening.

Staff at the Hennepin County Medical Center delivered the baby later that night, according to police. The baby’s condition is currently unknown, and the mother’s identity has not yet been released.

Donte Rapheal McCray has been identified as being allegedly involved in the incident, Lakeville police say. He’s being held at Dakota County Jail on second-degree manslaughter charges. McCray “has employment affiliation with the Amazon facility where the incident occurred,” a press release from police reads.

The investigation into the incident, led by Lakeville police, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Officer, is ongoing.

Amazon told ABC News that the company is working with police as they continue to investigate the incident. Amazon confirmed McCray’s employment with the company, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The first federal death penalty trial of the Biden administration began Monday in New York City with a prosecutor alleging Sayfullo Saipov was on a mission to become a full-fledged member of the ISIS terrorist network when he allegedly killed eight people and injured many others after he plowed a rental truck into people on a pedestrian and bicycling path in lower Manhattan on Halloween 2017.

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Alexander Li promised in his opening statement to show jurors photos of mangled bicycles and bodies, video of the attack truck racing down Manhattan’s West Side Highway and the 32-year-old defendant running through the street before a police officer shot and wounded him. Li said prosecution witnesses will testify of hearing the “roar of the engine” and the “horrible grinding noise” as Saipov allegedly mowed down bicycles and people.

As the trial began in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Saipov, who was raised in Uzbekistan, sat at the defense table wearing an olive shirt, a face mask and headphones so he can follow the trial through translation into his native language.

If convicted, he could face a sentence of death by lethal injection, making him the first federal defendant executed in a New York case since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair in 1953 for espionage.

The Halloween 2017 truck attack was the deadliest terror attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001.

The truck Saipov rented reached a speed of 66 mph before crashing into a school bus near Stuyvesant High School with two children aboard, one of whom was badly injured, Li said.

“The man who did this was Sayfullo Saipov,” Li told jurors. “Right after the attack, the defendant proudly declared why: He did it for ISIS. The defendant killed to become a member of ISIS and he did it right here in New York.”

Saipov’s attorney is scheduled to give an opening statement Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors said Saipov picked New York City for the attack because he knew it’s a busy, crowded metropolis. Had he not crashed into the school bus, prosecutors alleged Saipov would have extended his path of terror onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

Li alleged Saipov chose Halloween in 2017 as the date for the attack “because he knew there would be lots of people on the streets.”

Saipov — who lived in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey following his arrival in the United States — has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder in the aid of racketeering.

He was allegedly inspired to commit the killings by ISIS videos he viewed, prosecutors have previously said. The rental truck used in the Oct. 31, 2017, attack was decorated with an ISIS flag.

The suspect allegedly drove the truck on a bike lane and pedestrian walkway in lower Manhattan, near Stuyvesant High School. When the truck collided with the school bus, the driver exited the vehicle holding two objects, a paintball gun and pellet gun, prosecutors said.

“Moments after Saipov got out of the truck, he yelled, in substance and in part, ‘Allah Akbar,'” according to charging documents filed in the case.

Prosecutors alleged Saipov rented the pickup nine days before the attack “so he could practice making turns with the truck in advance of his attack,” prosecutors said.

The attack required “substantial planning and premeditation,” prosecutors said, describing Saipov in court documents as Saipov as “heinous, cruel and depraved.”

Killed in the attack were Diego Enrique Angelini, Nicholas Cleves, Ann-Laure Decadt, Darren Drake, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi, Hernan Diego Mendoza, and Alejandro Damian Pagnucco. Five of the victims were tourists from Argentina.

If Saipov is convicted, there would be a penalty phase of the case in which the jury would decide whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison.

It has been a decade since the Southern District of New York last prosecuted a death penalty case. Its last capital murder case was against Khalid Barnes, who was convicted of murdering two drug suppliers but was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in September 2009.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — Many questions remain unanswered after a 6-year-old student allegedly shot and injured a teacher at a Newport News, Virginia, elementary school.

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said in a statement this weekend that police were “working diligently to get an answer to the question we are all asking — how did this happen?”

What we know

A Richneck Elementary School teacher, described as a woman in her 30s, was shot with a handgun on Friday in a first-grade classroom, police said.

She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The mayor told CNN on Sunday that she was in stable condition.

The shooting took place during an altercation between the teacher and the student, police said, without providing more details.

No students were injured and the 6-year-old suspect was taken into custody.

The gun

Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said officials were looking into how the 6-year-old obtained the handgun.

Authorities haven’t made public who owns the gun or how the 6-year-old got the gun into the school.

A motive has also not been released. Authorities haven’t elaborated on the altercation between the student and teacher but the police chief told reporters Friday that the shooting was not accidental.

The 6-year-old

The mayor didn’t release where the 6-year-old is being held.

Asked by CNN on Sunday what will happen next for the suspect and if the 6-year-old’s parents could be held responsible, the mayor replied, “There’s a lot of questions that we have to answer.”

“Because it remains an investigation, we’re going to let itself work out before we rush to judgment at this time,” Jones said. “The individuals responsible will be held accountable — I can promise that.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Another “powerful” atmospheric river is expected to impact a large portion of the West Coast in the coming hours and days, drenching a drought-ravaged region, forecasters said.

Like rivers in the sky, the incoming storms will dump even more rain and snow over California and western Nevada, beginning Sunday night and peaking in intensity Monday into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The latest forecast shows “two major episodes of heavy precipitation” impacting California “in quick succession,” along with “two of the more energetic and moisture-laden parade of cyclones that are aiming directly for” the Golden State, the NWS said. The first episode, which began streaming into central California on Sunday night, “is expected to be the more robust of the two,” resulting in rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches near the coast, according to the NWS.

The second episode is expected to quickly arrive Tuesday with less heavy rainfall totals but “impacting locations farther south into southern California,” the NWS said. The Sierra Nevada, which stretches along the eastern edge of California, will likely see snowfall totals “exceeding 6 feet across the higher elevations before the snow tapers off Wednesday morning,” according to the NWS.

The forecast shows hourly rainfall totals are likely to steadily increase through Tuesday morning, reaching 1 inch in central California’s coastal Santa Lucia mountain range. Elsewhere, peak hourly rainfall totals of 0.5 to 1 inch can be expected. The cumulative effect of successive heavy precipitation combined with gusty winds will lead to additional instances of flash flooding and debris flow — especially in burn scars and other areas of sensitive terrain — as well as mudslides and rapid rises of creeks, streams and rivers, according to NWS.

“Significant” impacts to travel and infrastructure, including possible power outages, road closures, downed trees and snow load, can also be expected, the NWS said. Residents and visitors across the affected region have been advised to check their local forecast, never drive across flooded roadways and have both an emergency kit and evacuation plan in place.

As of 3:30 a.m. PT on Monday, more than 114,000 customers were without power in California, according to data collected by the website PowerOutage.us.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Sunday that the worst of the storms was yet to come. He said officials were preparing by activating emergency response teams and staging equipment throughout the state. The governor’s office also submitted a request to the White House for a presidential emergency declaration. President Joe Biden late Sunday approved an emergency declaration in California, ordering federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

In Northern California, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation order on Sunday for residents living in the Wilton area, along the Cosumnes River.

“Flooding is imminent. Out of an abundance of caution, residents must leave now before roads become impassable,” the evacuation order stated. “Rising water may spill over onto the nearest roadways and cut off access to leave the area. Last weekend, exit routes flooded quickly for residents leaving Wilton, so we are urging residents to get out now.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(HOUSTON) — The identity of a customer who fatally shot a masked robber inside a Houston taqueria and returned the stolen money to terrified diners remained a mystery Sunday as police released a surveillance image of him and requested he come forward for questioning.

Graphic security video from The Ranchito #4 taqueria in southwest Houston captured the unidentified customer pulling a pistol and turning the tables on the bandit as he circled the restaurant demanding customers to fork over their wallets while threatening them with what appeared to be a real handgun.

The footage showed the defiant customer pulling his weapon and firing from his seat at a booth, where he was dining with a man, hitting the robber multiple times in the back as some of the patrons dove under tables. The assailant collapsed near the front of the restaurant before the patron who shot him got up, stood over him and fired one more time point blank, the video shows.

The shooting unfolded around 11:30 p.m. Thursday as 10 customers were dining inside the taqueria, according to the Houston Police Department.

“Witnesses told officers the suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a pistol at patrons as he demanded their money. As the suspect collected money from patrons, one of the patrons, described as a white or Hispanic male, produced a gun of his own and shot the suspect multiple times,” police said in a statement.

The gun the robber used to menace diners turned out to be a toy gun, police said.

“The shooter collected the stolen money from the suspect and returned the money to other patrons. He and other patrons (victims) then fled the scene,” police said.

The security video shows the armed customer picking up the robber’s weapon and throwing it against a wall.

A surveillance image of the customer and his vehicle, a battered 1970s or 1980s pickup truck, were released by police, who said they want to question him and other patrons who left the scene without providing officers a statement.

“Investigators want to speak with the man for his role in the shooting,” police said in a statement, adding that no charges have been filed.

At least nine gunshots could be heard on the video. No one else was injured in the incident.

The identity of the dead suspect, who is believed to be in his 20s, is pending verification by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, police said.

At the time of the robbery, the suspect was dressed all in black, including a black ski mask and black gloves, according to police.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, authorities said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A former U.S. defense intelligence agency analyst convicted of spying for Cuba was released from federal prison on Friday, prison officials confirmed with ABC News.

Ana Montes, 65, was arrested in 2001 for receiving encoded messages from the Cuban government and revealed the names of at least two covert U.S. intelligence officers, according to previous ABC News reporting.

She had been scheduled for release on Sunday. However, when those dates fall on the weekend, the Federal Bureau of Prison usually releases on Friday.

Montes was most recently at a federal facility in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the Associated Press.

Author Jim Popkin, who wrote about Montes in his recently released book “Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy―and the Sister She Betrayed,” told ABC News that he’s spoken to her family and they believe that she will be moving to Puerto Rico.

“She served her time and [is] free. She’ll have the opportunity to rebuild her life,” Popkin said. “There’s a large community [in Puerto Rico] who consider her to be a hero and, in some cases, a martyr.”

In 2002, she pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit espionage and, as part of a plea deal, was sentenced to 25 years in prison but only served a little over 21 years.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The attack fits a pattern of deadly vehicle attacks throughout Europe over the past two years.
The first federal death penalty trial of the Biden administration opens Monday in New York City, where Sayfullo Saipov is charged with the 2017 killings of eight people when he allegedly plowed a rental truck into pedestrians and cyclists along the West Side Highway.

The truck attack, which was on Halloween, was the deadliest terror attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001.

Saipov, a native of Uzbekistan who lived in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey following his arrival in the United States, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder in the aid of racketeering.

He was allegedly inspired to commit the killings by ISIS videos he viewed, prosecutors said. The rental truck used in the Oct. 31, 2017, attack was decorated with an ISIS flag.

The suspect allegedly drove the truck on a bike lane and pedestrian walkway in lower Manhattan, near Stuyvesant High School. When the truck collided with a school bus, the driver exited the vehicle holding two objects, a paintball gun and pellet gun, prosecutors said.

“Moments after Saipov got out of the truck, he yelled, in substance and in part, ‘Allah Akbar,'” according to charging documents filed in the case.

MORE: Feds interviewed accused NYC truck attacker in 2015 about possible terror ties
Prosecutors alleged Saipov rented the pickup nine days before the attack “so he could practice making turns with the truck in advance of his attack,” prosecutors said.

He chose Halloween to commit the attack, anticipating there would be more civilians on the streets that day, prosecutors alleged.

The attack required “substantial planning and premeditation,” prosecutors said, describing how Saipov carried it out as “heinous, cruel and depraved.”

“Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov caused injury, harm, and loss to the families and friends of Diego Enrique Angelini, Nicholas Cleves, Ann-Laure Decadt, Darren Drake, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi, Hernan Diego Mendoza, and Alejandro Damian Pagnucco,” according to court records. Five of the victims were tourists from Argentina.

If Saipov is convicted there would be a penalty phase of the case in which the jury would decide whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison.

It has been a decade since the Southern District of New York last prosecuted a death penalty case. Its last capital murder case was against Khalid Barnes, who was convicted of murdering two drug suppliers but was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in September 2009.

The last time the death penalty was carried out in a New York federal case was in 1953 when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple, was executed after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union during the Cold War two years before.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.