(RIVERVIEW, Fla.) — Authorities in Florida have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with a shooting that left one victim dead and another in critical condition.
Reports for the shooting at the 11000 block of Lynmoor Drive in Riverview, Florida, came in on Saturday afternoon at the same time that emergency dispatchers received calls detailing a young male suspect running through the neighborhood with a handgun, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they contacted the suspect, who repeatedly pointed the gun to his head and threatened to shoot himself, authorities said.
The deputies then began de-escalation tactics and negotiated with the suspect for 16 minutes, ultimately convincing him to lower his weapon, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told reporters during a news conference.
When the teen attempted to retrieve the weapon again, deputies shot him in the hand with a rubber bullet, Chronister said.
“They used their remarkable intuition and expertise to determine this suspect was not looking to harm them, but was contemplating suicide,” Chronister said of the deputies’ actions.
During the de-escalation process, emergency units responded to the reports of the man who was shot several times and fled to a neighbor’s home for help, authorities said. The victim was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
As the teen was being taken into custody, deputies then found another victim, who was unresponsive in a nearby driveway, according to the sheriff’s office. The woman, who is related to the suspect, was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
Chronister described the scene as “one that nightmares are made of.”
“This family’s lives have been forever changed,” he said. “They lost a mother. This mother’s life is over.”
ABC Tampa affiliate WFTS reported that the teen shot and killed his mother, shot her boyfriend five times and attempted to shoot his older brother.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff’s office said.
(LOS ANGELES) — A deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has died after being shot while sitting in a patrol vehicle in Palmdale on Saturday, his office said.
“At approximately 6 p.m. an LASD Palmdale Deputy was found in medical distress in front of Palmdale Sheriff Station,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on social media.
Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was 30 years old.
Clinkunbroomer, who was in uniform, was working in a patrol car from the Palmdale sheriff’s station when he was discovered unconscious in his vehicle by a good Samaritan, LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a media briefing Sunday. They immediately reported it to the Palmdale station personnel. Clinkunbroomer was transported to the Antelope Valley Medical Center, where he was treated for a gunshot wound, but later died from his injuries, Luna said.
Authorities have not publicly named a suspect or motive in the case, but Luna said he believes the shooting was targeted.
“It’s all on the table. It could have been our deputy. It could have been just the fact that he was representing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, as one of our employees,” Luna said. “We don’t know, everything’s on the table.”
No arrests have been made.
“He ambushed and killed, murdered one of our deputies. We need your help to get him off the street,” Luna said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt Gov. Eleni Kounalakis sent condolences to Clinkunbroomer’s loved ones and those with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, saying he “selflessly” served his community.
“On behalf of all Californians, we mourn the horrific, unconscionable, and shocking loss of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer — a third-generation law enforcement officer whose commitment to service and justice represented the best of the Golden State,” Newsom and Kounalakis said in their statement. “Deputy Clinkunbroomer’s devotion to community and country will never be forgotten.”
The shooting was “senseless and horrific,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, on X.
“It is sickening, heartbreaking news,” Scott Wilk, a California state senator, said on social media. “As we learn more details, my prayers are with the deputy, their family and the entire Palmdale community tonight.”
Clinkunbroomer was an eight-year veteran of the LASD and was a third generation, Luna said on X.
“Our deputy was a devoted family member and a cherished community member. He was cowardly shot while working tirelessly to serve our community this evening. Our hearts go out to his family. We cannot fully understand their pain, but we will stand with them in solidarity and support them during this difficult time. They deserve unwavering compassion, and we will do everything in our power to provide them with assistance and care,” Luna said.
(NEW YORK) — A 1-year-old boy died and three other children were hospitalized after apparently “coming into contact with an opioid” at a home-based child care site in the Bronx on Friday, New York City police said.
The boy who died was identified by authorities as Nicholas Dominici.
One of the three children hospitalized is in critical condition, authorities said at a press conference early Saturday.
Police said they received a 911 call from a daycare center reporting three unconscious children just before 3 p.m. on Friday. When police responded, they found two boys, 1 and 2 years old, and an 8-month-old girl, all unconscious, according to the NYPD.
Investigators revealed the children appear to have been exposed to the unknown opioids over an extended period Friday.
A 2-year-old boy who went home at around 12:15 p.m. was later found by his mother to be “acting lethargic and unresponsive,” police said. The mother rushed him to the hospital, where the opioid-reversal medication Narcan saved his life.
The children who stayed at the day care ate something at around 1 p.m. and took a nap. When workers went to wake them up at 2:30 p.m., three were unconscious, according to police.
“All three children were unresponsive and demonstrating symptoms of opioid exposure. Narcan was administered to all three of these children in an attempt to save their lives,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The children who were hospitalized all live nearby in the Bronx. None are related.
The NYPD said they executed a search warrant at Divino Nino Daycare and discovered a kilo press – an item commonly used by drug dealers when packaging large quantities of drugs.
ABC News could not immediately reach the daycare for comment.
“This crisis is real, and is a real wake-up call for individuals who have opioids or fentanyl in their homes,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference. “Our hearts break for these families that are involved.”
The daycare, for children between 6 weeks and 12 years old, recently opened in January and just passed a surprise visit from city inspectors last week with no violations found, according to police.
Two people — the woman running the daycare at the time of the tragedy and an unidentified man — are being questioned by detectives, with charges expected, police said.
The city medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine Dominici’s cause of death, and doctors will take urine and blood from the surviving children to try to figure out what drugs they were exposed to, police said.
“The mere contact is deadly for an adult and it’s extremely deadly for a child,” Adams said.
NYPD officials said this is an active criminal investigation.
“We should not be here. These children do not deserve this, so please pray for them and their families,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said at a press conference.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 storm churning in the Atlantic Ocean, is bringing dangerous rip currents to the East Coast before heading to New England, where a hurricane watch is in effect.
The winds and rain will reach Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine by Friday night.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 16, 4:31 PM EDT
Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia
Lee made landfall in far western Nova Scotia around 4 p.m. as a post-tropical cyclone, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Sep 16, 4:13 PM EDT
Strong wind and rain impacts persist in eastern Maine
Lee continues to weaken Saturday afternoon and remains a post-tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, which is now tropical storm strength.
The center of Lee is near western Nova Scotia and will likely come ashore in Atlantic Canada in the next couple hours, akin to a routine nor’easter.
Weather conditions are improving across much of New England. Notable impacts moving forward are now focused over eastern Maine, where strong wind gusts and areas of rain will linger through this evening before it all wraps up by midnight.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for portions of Maine, as well as across Nova Scotia and portions of New Brunswick, Canada.
Eastern Maine and western Nova Scotia are getting hit with the brunt of the rain and wind impacts from Lee. A wind gust of 52 mph was recently reported in Bangor, Maine.
Breezy conditions will persist along the New England coast this evening and tonight. Notable impacts should be done by midnight as what’s left of Lee races north.
Ocean impacts will be slower to improve this weekend. Rough surf and dangerous rip currents will impact a large swath of the East Coast through this evening, then begin to diminish on Sunday.
-ABC News’ Daniel Peck
Sep 16, 3:57 PM EDT
102K without power in New England
More than 102,000 customers are without power in New England, including more than 93,000 in Maine, amid weather impacts from Lee, according to PowerOutage.us.
Sep 16, 5:54 AM EDT
Lee becomes post-tropical as it approaches Nova Scotia
Still producing hurricane-force winds, Lee has been downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it approaches Nova Scotia on Saturday morning.
The remnants of Hurricane Lee — now basically an extreme Nor’easter — are bearing down on coastal New England and Canada. But even though Lee is now post-tropical, the storm remains strong as it produces huge waves, life-threatening rip currents, strong winds and widespread rain to New England, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds remain near 80 mph with higher gusts at Lee’s center.
Lee is expected to be at or just below hurricane strength when it reaches Nova Scotia later today.
On the forecast track, the center of Lee will continue to approach the coast of Nova Scotia this morning. Lee is then expected to turn toward the north-northeast and northeast and move across Atlantic Canada tonight and Sunday.
By 10 p.m. tonight, rain will be northeast of America and completely in Atlantic Canada.
Winds will be simply “windy” down to “breezy” by Sunday morning with gusts of only 15-30 mph at 7 a.m. Sunday in New England.
For now, Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 390 miles from Lee’s center.
Swells generated by Lee are affecting the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Rip currents alerts are set to a high risk from New England all the way to Florida as the entire Atlantic coast of America will be seeing life-threatening rip currents today. Through tonight, Lee is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches over far eastern Massachusetts, eastern Maine, western Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
Sep 15, 5:08 PM EDT
Lee’s latest forecast
Lee is picking up speed as it moves north and is now about 290 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The rain will start to hit southeastern New England Friday evening with winds increasing overnight. The storm will last in the region through Saturday afternoon.
Lee, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon.
The rough surf, big waves and dangerous rip currents will persist across much of the East Coast through Saturday.
Lee will likely come ashore in Canada — in western Nova Scotia or western New Brunswick — by Saturday afternoon or early evening.
Sep 15, 3:03 PM EDT
Tropical storm warnings in effect along New England coast
Hurricane Lee will pick up speed over the next 24 hours as it races up the East Coast.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect along the coast from Massachusetts to Maine. Coastal flood advisories and high surf advisories are also in effect.
The rain will begin in southeastern New England Friday night, with winds strengthening overnight. Wind gusts up to 60 mph are possible in Cape Cod and Nantucket.
Lee, now a Category 1 hurricane, is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm on Saturday.
Most of the rain and wind will hit southeastern New England on Saturday and then shift toward Maine later in the day.
The rough surf will likely persist along New England’s coast through Saturday night, but major flooding is not expected.
Lee is forecast to reach the shore in Canada, in western Nova Scotia or western New Brunswick, by Saturday afternoon or early evening.
By Sunday morning, the impacts from Lee will be ending in Maine and Nova Scotia.
Sep 15, 12:57 PM EDT
Massachusetts declares state of emergency
Massachusetts has joined Maine in declaring a state of emergency as Hurricane Lee approaches.
A tropical storm warning has been issued in the state. The rain will begin Friday night in Massachusetts, starting on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. and reaching Boston after midnight.
“Drivers should plan ahead if traveling during severe weather,” Gov. Maura Healey tweeted. “Heavy equipment, pumps and generators are fueled up and ready to be deployed if needed and emergency crews are on standby.”
Sep 15, 11:40 AM EDT
Lee’s strong winds to reach New England by Friday afternoon
Lee, now a Category 1 hurricane, is located about 395 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and is threatening the East Coast with huge waves.
A tropical storm warning has been issued from Massachusetts to Maine, and on Friday afternoon, tropical storm-force winds of 39 mph or higher are expected to begin in New England.
The rain will begin Friday night in Massachusetts, starting on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. and reaching Boston after midnight.
Lee will bring some minor storm surge Friday night. Waters could rise 1 to 3 feet from Long Island to Maine.
By late Saturday afternoon, Lee is expected to move into Canada, hitting the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia areas as an extra-tropical storm.
By Saturday night, Lee will move away from land.
Sep 15, 7:59 AM EDT
Huge waves will be main threat for New England on Friday
With Hurricane Lee forecast to get closer to New England by Friday night, huge waves could batter East Coast beaches and coastal communities.
Waves up to 16 feet will be possible in Long Island, New York, on Friday and Saturday.
The National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning from Massachusetts to Maine.
Wind-whipped rain will begin to fall in far southeastern New England near Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. ET on Friday and in Boston after midnight.
Lee will push minor storm surge into the coastal Northeast areas, from Long Island to Maine, where water will rise 1 to 3 feet and some minor coastal flooding will be possible.
The worst conditions on Cape Cod and in Boston will be Friday night into Saturday morning with gusty winds, some rain, huge waves and minor coastal flooding.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 15, 6:00 AM EDT
Lee passes Bermuda, gets closer to New England
Hurricane Lee passed to the west of Bermuda late Thursday night, bringing wind gusts of up to 60 mph to the British island territory.
As of 5 a.m. ET on Friday, the eye of the storm was located about 215 miles northwest of Bermuda and 490 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.
Lee is currently a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 85 mph. The storm is a wide cyclone with tropical storm winds extending almost 320 miles from the center.
Lee is forecast to continue moving way from Bermuda and get closer to New England by Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.
By Saturday afternoon, Lee is forecast to move into Canada and make landfall somewhere between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as an extra-tropical storm. Lee is expected move away from the United States by Saturday evening.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 14, 5:55 PM EDT
Maine governor declares state of emergency
Maine Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Lee.
Mills also requested that President Joe Biden issue a preemptive Presidential Emergency Disaster to help facilitate federal resources and funds.
“We continue to strongly urge Maine people – particularly those Downeast – to exercise caution and to take steps to ensure they have what they need to stay safe as the storm draws closer,” Mills said in a statement.
Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant, two utilities that operate in the state, are preparing for possible power outages and will be monitoring the grid closely, according to the governor.
Sep 14, 5:45 PM EDT
Tropical storm warnings extended along New England coast
The center of Hurricane Lee is currently about a couple hundred miles west of Bermuda, where a wind gust of 52 mph was reported, and 665 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to the latest tracking update.
Lee remains a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85 mph.
A tropical storm warning has been extended up the New England coast and now covers areas from Massachusetts to Maine.
A tropical storm watch along the Rhode Island coast and a storm surge watch for Nantucket have been canceled, officials said.
A hurricane watch remains in effect for portions of the coast of Maine and into Nova Scotia.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 storm churning in the Atlantic Ocean, is bringing dangerous rip currents to the East Coast before heading to New England, where a hurricane watch is in effect.
The winds and rain will reach Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine by Friday night.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 16, 5:54 AM EDT
Lee becomes post-tropical as it approaches Nova Scotia
Still producing hurricane-force winds, Lee has been downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it approaches Nova Scotia on Saturday morning.
The remnants of Hurricane Lee — now basically an extreme Nor’easter — are bearing down on coastal New England and Canada. But even though Lee is now post-tropical, the storm remains strong as it produces huge waves, life-threatening rip currents, strong winds and widespread rain to New England, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds remain near 80 mph with higher gusts at Lee’s center.
Lee is expected to be at or just below hurricane strength when it reaches Nova Scotia later today.
On the forecast track, the center of Lee will continue to approach the coast of Nova Scotia this morning. Lee is then expected to turn toward the north-northeast and northeast and move across Atlantic Canada tonight and Sunday.
By 10 p.m. tonight, rain will be northeast of America and completely in Atlantic Canada.
Winds will be simply “windy” down to “breezy” by Sunday morning with gusts of only 15-30 mph at 7 a.m. Sunday in New England.
For now, Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 390 miles from Lee’s center.
Swells generated by Lee are affecting the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Rip currents alerts are set to a high risk from New England all the way to Florida as the entire Atlantic coast of America will be seeing life-threatening rip currents today. Through tonight, Lee is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches over far eastern Massachusetts, eastern Maine, western Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
Sep 15, 5:08 PM EDT
Lee’s latest forecast
Lee is picking up speed as it moves north and is now about 290 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The rain will start to hit southeastern New England Friday evening with winds increasing overnight. The storm will last in the region through Saturday afternoon.
Lee, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon.
The rough surf, big waves and dangerous rip currents will persist across much of the East Coast through Saturday.
Lee will likely come ashore in Canada — in western Nova Scotia or western New Brunswick — by Saturday afternoon or early evening.
Sep 15, 3:03 PM EDT
Tropical storm warnings in effect along New England coast
Hurricane Lee will pick up speed over the next 24 hours as it races up the East Coast.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect along the coast from Massachusetts to Maine. Coastal flood advisories and high surf advisories are also in effect.
The rain will begin in southeastern New England Friday night, with winds strengthening overnight. Wind gusts up to 60 mph are possible in Cape Cod and Nantucket.
Lee, now a Category 1 hurricane, is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm on Saturday.
Most of the rain and wind will hit southeastern New England on Saturday and then shift toward Maine later in the day.
The rough surf will likely persist along New England’s coast through Saturday night, but major flooding is not expected.
Lee is forecast to reach the shore in Canada, in western Nova Scotia or western New Brunswick, by Saturday afternoon or early evening.
By Sunday morning, the impacts from Lee will be ending in Maine and Nova Scotia.
Sep 15, 12:57 PM EDT
Massachusetts declares state of emergency
Massachusetts has joined Maine in declaring a state of emergency as Hurricane Lee approaches.
A tropical storm warning has been issued in the state. The rain will begin Friday night in Massachusetts, starting on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. and reaching Boston after midnight.
“Drivers should plan ahead if traveling during severe weather,” Gov. Maura Healey tweeted. “Heavy equipment, pumps and generators are fueled up and ready to be deployed if needed and emergency crews are on standby.”
Sep 15, 11:40 AM EDT
Lee’s strong winds to reach New England by Friday afternoon
Lee, now a Category 1 hurricane, is located about 395 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and is threatening the East Coast with huge waves.
A tropical storm warning has been issued from Massachusetts to Maine, and on Friday afternoon, tropical storm-force winds of 39 mph or higher are expected to begin in New England.
The rain will begin Friday night in Massachusetts, starting on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. and reaching Boston after midnight.
Lee will bring some minor storm surge Friday night. Waters could rise 1 to 3 feet from Long Island to Maine.
By late Saturday afternoon, Lee is expected to move into Canada, hitting the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia areas as an extra-tropical storm.
By Saturday night, Lee will move away from land.
Sep 15, 7:59 AM EDT
Huge waves will be main threat for New England on Friday
With Hurricane Lee forecast to get closer to New England by Friday night, huge waves could batter East Coast beaches and coastal communities.
Waves up to 16 feet will be possible in Long Island, New York, on Friday and Saturday.
The National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning from Massachusetts to Maine.
Wind-whipped rain will begin to fall in far southeastern New England near Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard after 9 p.m. ET on Friday and in Boston after midnight.
Lee will push minor storm surge into the coastal Northeast areas, from Long Island to Maine, where water will rise 1 to 3 feet and some minor coastal flooding will be possible.
The worst conditions on Cape Cod and in Boston will be Friday night into Saturday morning with gusty winds, some rain, huge waves and minor coastal flooding.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 15, 6:00 AM EDT
Lee passes Bermuda, gets closer to New England
Hurricane Lee passed to the west of Bermuda late Thursday night, bringing wind gusts of up to 60 mph to the British island territory.
As of 5 a.m. ET on Friday, the eye of the storm was located about 215 miles northwest of Bermuda and 490 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.
Lee is currently a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 85 mph. The storm is a wide cyclone with tropical storm winds extending almost 320 miles from the center.
Lee is forecast to continue moving way from Bermuda and get closer to New England by Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.
By Saturday afternoon, Lee is forecast to move into Canada and make landfall somewhere between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as an extra-tropical storm. Lee is expected move away from the United States by Saturday evening.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 14, 5:55 PM EDT
Maine governor declares state of emergency
Maine Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Lee.
Mills also requested that President Joe Biden issue a preemptive Presidential Emergency Disaster to help facilitate federal resources and funds.
“We continue to strongly urge Maine people – particularly those Downeast – to exercise caution and to take steps to ensure they have what they need to stay safe as the storm draws closer,” Mills said in a statement.
Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant, two utilities that operate in the state, are preparing for possible power outages and will be monitoring the grid closely, according to the governor.
Sep 14, 5:45 PM EDT
Tropical storm warnings extended along New England coast
The center of Hurricane Lee is currently about a couple hundred miles west of Bermuda, where a wind gust of 52 mph was reported, and 665 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to the latest tracking update.
Lee remains a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85 mph.
A tropical storm warning has been extended up the New England coast and now covers areas from Massachusetts to Maine.
A tropical storm watch along the Rhode Island coast and a storm surge watch for Nantucket have been canceled, officials said.
A hurricane watch remains in effect for portions of the coast of Maine and into Nova Scotia.
(LOS ANGELES) — An armed man accused of impersonating a U.S. Marshal was taken into custody at a Robert Kennedy Jr. campaign event in Los Angeles, California, Friday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
A spokesperson from the LAPD said in a statement to ABC News that a radio call was generated around 4:30 p.m. PT reporting a man with “a loaded gun in a shoulder holster and a badge stating he was a U.S. Marshal.” LAPD officers arrived shortly after and arrested the man. The FBI was also present at the scene.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Kennedy said that members of his private security detail from Gavin de Becker and Associates “spotted and detained an armed man” who attempted to approach him during a campaign speech on Hispanic Heritage Month at the Wilshire Ebell Theater.
LAPD radio traffic on Broadcastify identified the suspect as a Hispanic male with tattoos on his arms, neck and hands.
“The suspect never brandished the gun or threatened anyone. He was taken to Wilshire Station where there was talk of [the] FBI possibly handling,” said the LAPD.
It was later decided that the LAPD would remain the lead agency on the case and that the suspect would “probably be booked on a gun charge,” according to the station’s Watch Commander.
Further booking information on the suspect was not readily available.
In July, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a bipartisan committee rejected a request from Kennedy for Secret Service protection following an unusually early request from Kennedy’s campaign. Kennedy said at the time that his request “included a 67-page report…detailing unique and well-established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats.”
Kennedy, whose father and uncle were both assassinated, raised the issue of a Secret Service detail again in his statement on Friday night, claiming he was the “first presidential candidate in history” to be denied protection upon request.
“I’m still entertaining a hope that President Biden will allow me Secret Service protection,” Kennedy said.
“Major presidential candidates” do receive Secret Service protection during the primaries but there are a number of requirements that candidates must meet, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Once such requirements are met, the secretary of Homeland Security consults with an advisory committee and one additional member selected by the other members of the committee — usually from the Secret Service — and determines if a candidate is eligible for Secret Service protection.
Notably, this is the first time Kennedy has explicitly acknowledged that Gavin de Becker and Associates, whose namesake donated $4.5 million to a pro-Kennedy Super PAC, is providing his security detail.
Asked in July by ABC News if he employed private security following the rejection of his request, Kennedy was cagey about the details despite the presence of men wearing pins with the insignia of Gavin de Becker and Associates.
“I’m not going to tell you my security arrangements for obvious reasons,” Kennedy said.
(DULUTH, Ga.) — A woman found dead in the trunk of a car earlier this week was allegedly lured to the U.S. from South Korea to join a religious organization, then tortured in the basement of a Georgia home, police said.
Six people, including a 15-year-old boy, have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the woman’s death, Gwinnett County police announced on Thursday.
The victim — who is believed to be in her 20s to mid-30s — is believed to have moved to the U.S. sometime over the summer to join what the suspects referred to as “Soldiers of Christ,” police said.
“Apparently the victim was subjected to beatings, malnourishment — which subsequently resulted in what the medical examiner’s office believes was the cause of her death,” Cpl. Juan Madiedo, a spokesperson with the Gwinnett County Police Department, said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Police believe the victim starved for several weeks and died sometime in late August. She weighed approximately 70 pounds when she was found on Tuesday, police said. Her body was also burned and wrapped in a blanket, according to the arrest warrants.
The exact cause of death is still under investigation.
A relative of one of the suspects found her body in the trunk of a car parked in a shopping center parking lot in Duluth Tuesday night and called 911, police said. The suspect — Eric Hyun, 26 — allegedly asked the family member to retrieve an item for him from the car while he was in the hospital for unspecified injuries, police said.
The ensuing investigation led detectives to a house associated with Hyun in Lawrenceville, where evidence of the beatings was found in the basement, police said.
In addition to Hyun, four other adults — Gawom Lee, 26; Joonho Lee, 26; Juoonhyum Lee, 22; and Hyunji Lee, 25 — and a 15-year-old were arrested and charged with felony murder, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of another, police said.
Police said Friday that they have also secured multiple criminal street gang warrants for each of the suspects.
Georgia law describes a criminal street gang as “any organization, association, or group of three or more persons associated in fact, whether formal or informal, which engages in criminal gang activity,” police said.
An attorney for Joonho Lee told ABC News he has no comment at this time. ABC News has reached out to the attorneys for Gawom Lee and Hyunji Lee for comment.
Online court records did not include any attorney information for Hyun and Juoonhyum Lee.
Three of the suspects are brothers, while Hyunji Lee is the girlfriend of one of the suspects, Madiedo said. All live at the home except for Hyun, who at one time lived there, Madiedo said.
Detectives do not believe there are any other victims or suspects, Madiedo said.
The victim was not publicly identified by police, who said Thursday that her family in South Korea had not yet been notified of her death.
(AURORA, Colo.) — The trial of two first responders begins today in Colorado in the case of a Black man who died following his arrest in a 2019 confrontation with police.
Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, who helped restrain Elijah McClain before his death, are being tried in Aurora in connection with the fatal incident. Three other people who were involved in McClain’s arrest will be tried at a later date.
McClain, 23, died following an encounter with Aurora, Colorado, police in August 2019 while he was walking home from a convenience store.
A passerby had called 911 to report McClain was acting “sketchy,” telling authorities he was wearing a ski mask on a warm night. The lawyer for the McClain family attributed this to the fact that McClain was anemic, which made him feel cold more easily.
He was stopped by police and placed in a chokehold, according to police body camera footage.
McClain can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” in police body camera footage.
Paramedics arrived, giving McClain an “excessive” dose of ketamine, according to McClain’s lawyer, and McClain suffered from cardiac arrest in an ambulance shortly afterward, according to officials. McClain was pronounced dead three days later.
Paramedics gave McClain ketamine, as per their department protocol, for “rapid tranquilization in order to minimize time struggling,” according to officials.
Both Roedema and Rosenblatt were police officers at the time of the incident.
ABC News has reached out to their legal representatives.
A revised coroner’s report issued in 2021 said the cause of death was due to “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.”
The two are charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent reckless homicide and assault charges, and will be tried separately from three other first responders who are also charged in connection with the incident.
Police officer Nathan Woodyard and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec were also charged and indicted.
All five of them have pleaded not guilty.
The five defendants’ cases will be split into three separate proceedings, according to a Wednesday court order from Adams County District Court Judge Mark Douglas Warner.
Woodyard will be tried separately because he was first on the scene and allegedly placed McClain in the carotid hold, according to the court order.
Cooper and Cichuniec, who allegedly injected the ketamine, will be tried together.
(NEW YORK) — Global temperatures this June and August were the warmest on record, but a new analysis from Berkeley Earth also found that they likely exceeded the benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels that is expected to prompt worsening impacts of global warming.
With the average summer temp above 1.5℃, there’s a 50/50 chance that 2023 will end up being the first year to exceed that average warming point, depending on if temperatures stay elevated or cool in the next few months. NOAA says there’s a 95% chance that 2023 will be one of the two hottest years on record.
Exceeding 1.5℃ temporarily is not seen as a failure to limit warming under the Paris Agreement, the international agreement adopted seven years ago to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels, because the agreement looks at the climate average over several years. Even so, experts say the latest temps are an important signal that those higher averages are likely to happen in the next decade if emissions aren’t reduced significantly.
Average temperatures that consistently hit 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels are expected to bring more severe impacts of climate change, such as the extreme heat waves and conditions that intensify wildfires of the kind that occurred this summer.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also has warned that warming above 1.5℃ will bring more severe effects, such as increasing extreme heat events, as well as increasing impacts to biodiversity, food security, and coastal ecosystems.
“Years like 2023 give us a sneak peek at what the climate is going to look like typically ten years down the road. So we’re getting a little view at what the 2030s are going to typically be like given the rate of warming that the world is experiencing,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, told ABC News.
There are multiple reasons that this summer has been so warm, including but not limited to global warming attributed to human emissions. But Hausfather said that any natural changes in the climate year to year are happening on top of the overall warming trend linked to human activity, thus intensifying the trend.
One of those factors is El Nino, the climate pattern that typically means overall warmer-than-normal years on average. El Nino years come in cycles, but Hausfather mentions that climate change is like adding a “permanent super El Nino every decade.”
“There’s still a lot of additional scientific work to disentangle the exact drivers of the exceptional heat we’re seeing in 2023. But what we can say is that this little heat would have been effectively impossible for the world to experience, you know, 50 or 100 years ago without the impact of human activity on the climate,” Hausfather said.
NOAA and Berkeley Earth both report that this August ranks as the warmest on record, but the amount of warming varies, based on the time period to which scientists compare it. Berkeley compares average temperatures to the preindustrial period, starting in 1850. NOAA, however, uses a method that compares temperatures to the 20th century average, so their findings are slightly different.
August ranks as the warmest August in NOAA’s 174-year record history, with global surface temperatures 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.25 degrees Celsius, above the 20th-century average. This in turn was 0.52°F, or 0.29°C, above the previous record from August 2016, and marks the third-highest monthly temperature anomaly of any month on record.
It was also the warmest on record for the Arctic, while Antarctica saw its fourth consecutive month with the lowest sea ice coverage on record.
Four continents – Asia, Africa, North America, and South America – all had their warmest August on record. Record-warm temperatures covered nearly 13% of the world’s surface this August, which was the highest August surface coverage percentage since records began in 1951.
August 2023 also set a record for the highest monthly sea surface temperature anomaly of any month in NOAA’s 174-year record.
Overall, the past 10 summers are the 10 warmest summers on record.
According to the Berkeley Earth analysis, which looks further back than NOAA, the global mean temperature in August 2023 was roughly 3.02°F, or 1.68°C, above the 1850 to 1900 average, a span of years that is frequently used as a benchmark for the preindustrial period.
This is the 12th time in the Berkeley Earth analysis that any individual month has reached at least 2.7 °F, or 1.5 °C, over the preindustrial benchmark. However, July and August 2023 are the only times, thus far, that a 1.5 °C anomaly has occurred during Northern Hemisphere summer. Extreme temperatures in the summer are more likely to lead to all-time records than other parts of the year.
(NEW YORK) — The last three men to stand trial in connection with a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have been found not guilty on all counts.
Eric Molitor and twin brothers William Null and Michael Null were among the 14 men charged in state and federal court over the alleged plan to kidnap the governor at her vacation home in Antrim County in 2020, largely over the Democratic governor’s strict COVID-19 shutdowns.
Molitor, 39, and the Null brothers, both 41, had pleaded not guilty to state charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and illegally possessing firearms.
The Antrim County jury reached its verdict on Friday after about a day of deliberations following a three-week trial. Molitor broke down in tears of relief after his verdict was read.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, prosecutor James Rossiter told the jury that the defendants were going to help the plot leaders “bring terrorism to Antrim County.”
“If you’re going to help somebody, knowing that they planned a terrorist act, that’s wrong,” Rossiter said.
Molitor’s defense attorney, William Barnett, said in his closing that the state’s case is “weak” and accused the prosecutors of attempting to mislead jurors in their presentation of evidence.
“This thing just became a good story they couldn’t back out of. They’re here pulling the shortcuts to try to get somebody convicted, an innocent person,” Barnett said.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that the three men “hated” their government and assisted in the kidnapping plot, with the Nulls providing the “muscle” and Molitor recording video of Whitmer’s Antrim County property.
William Null and Molitor testified in their own defense, claiming they didn’t know the true nature of the plot until the last minute.
William Null told the jury that while on a nighttime surveillance mission, he didn’t know they were going to the governor’s cabin.
Molitor testified he feared for his life during surveillance of the cabin with Adam Fox, one of the plot leaders who was convicted on federal charges.
“What happens if we don’t do this stuff?” Molitor told the court. “He wasn’t saying, ‘Shoot somebody’ — that would have been a hard no. He didn’t say, ‘Blow something up’ — that would have been a hard no. He said, ‘Take a video.’ I took a video.”
Michael Null declined to testify.
Previously, nine of the militia members have been convicted in state or federal court in connection with the alleged plot, while two have been acquitted.
Pete Musico, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar were found guilty by a jury in Jackson County of providing material support for a terrorist act, the most serious charge, as well as firearms charges and membership in a gang and given yearslong state prison sentences in December.
Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were found guilty of federal conspiracy charges in a retrial last year after a previous trial ended in a hung jury. They both received double-digit sentences.
Kaleb Franks and Ty Garbin pleaded guilty to lesser charges last year and agreed to testify in the federal case against Fox and Croft. Franks was sentenced to four years in prison, while Garbin was sentenced to 30 months.
Brian Higgins and Shawn Fix each pleaded guilty to reduced state charges earlier this year in Antrim County and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Both have yet to be sentenced.
A jury found two of the members — Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta — not guilty of federal conspiracy charges during a trial last year.
In a statement released following that verdict, Whitmer’s office said the alleged plot was “the result of violent, divisive rhetoric that is all too common across our country.”
“There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened,” her office said in the statement.
