(NEW YORK) — Wildfires burning in Canada continue to create hazardous air quality conditions in several states in the northern U.S.
Plumes of smoke from the fires blazing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, began drifting over New York City and the tri-state area on Tuesday, leading to a decrease in air quality, according to the National Weather Service.
Patchy low-level smoke is expected to linger and expand through the region on Wednesday, creating a cloudy haze that will block much of the sunlight, the NWS announced. The smell of smoke will also be present in some areas.
The jet stream, a high-speed, constantly shifting river of air about 30,000 feet into the atmosphere, is carrying the smoke from Nova Scotia through New England and further south in the U.S.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has issued a “code orange” air quality alert through Wednesday night for several counties, signifying unhealthy air pollution concentrations.
At-risk populations, such as young children, the elderly or those with lung and heart disease, should avoid the outdoors through Wednesday, according to the advisory.
The smoke is also affecting northern states such as Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut and is expected to travel as far south as Washington, D.C.
The weather is expected to remain hot and dry on Wednesday, with no rain forecast until Friday at the earliest.
Travel and activity in wooded areas have been banned to prevent the chances of reburn in some of the evacuated neighborhoods due to heavy winds.
Air quality alerts are in effect in the Northeast until midnight Thursday.
Branden Colvin, one of the residents still missing after a building collapsed in Davenport, Iowa, is shown in this undated photo. — Obtained by ABC News
(DAVENPORT, Iowa) — It’s been nearly 72 hours since a Davenport, Iowa, apartment building partially collapsed, possibly trapping two men inside, including resident Branden Colvin.
Colvin’s son, Branden Colvin Jr., said he feels helpless as he waits for answers.
“I know my dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do … wishing I could just run in there,” Colvin Jr. told ABC News on Wednesday.
Colvin Jr. said he’s not an emotional person, but when he was alone, he said he broke down crying.
“I just want to talk to him, give him a hug, hear his voice, anything,” he said.
The six-story building partially collapsed on Sunday afternoon for unknown reasons.
More than a dozen people evacuated the building at the time and eight people were rescued in the 24 hours that followed.
On Monday, officials said there was no credible information that anyone was missing and the city was moving forward with plans for staging a demolition beginning Tuesday.
Then, on Monday night, a ninth victim, Lisa Brooks, was found alive inside and pulled out of a fourth-story window.
On Tuesday, demolition plans were put on hold as officials announced that five people were unaccounted for, including two men, Branden Colvin and Ryan Hitchcock, who may be inside.
Colvin Jr. said Brooks’ rescue “gave me hope.”
“I’m just trying to stick it out and keep having hope,” he said.
But Colvin Jr. is frustrated with city officials, saying he wants responders to “just go in there and look for these people.”
Officials said Tuesday they were working to determine the best ways to search as the building’s condition worsens.
In a Tuesday afternoon search, several animals were rescued, but no human activity was detected, city officials said.
“The stability of the building continues to degrade,” the city of Davenport said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “The recovery of any unaccounted for individuals remains the priority of the City as operational planning progresses.”
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.
Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.
Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.
The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.
Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.
The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.
A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.
After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.
“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.
Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.
The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.
The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.
(INDIANOLA, Miss.) — The family of Aderrien Murry, the 11-year-old boy who was shot by police on May 20 after calling 911, claimed the boy was shot without warning after he and his family members were ordered to leave their house, according to a lawsuit.
The suit, filed in Mississippi federal court on behalf of Aderrien and his mother, Nakala Murry, claims the officer who fired the gun, Greg Capers, was “reckless.” It was filed after Aderrien spoke to ABC News about the incident.
“This is a claim for negligence and excessive force,” said the complaint, which also named the city of Indianola, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and John Does.
“The injuries endured by all plaintiffs could have been avoided if defendants would have acquired the adequate training on how to provide proper assistance and care,” the lawsuit, which was reviewed by ABC News, said. “However, as a result of the defendants, deliberate indifference, reckless disregard and gross negligence, plaintiffs sustained injuries and damages.”
The complaint alleges that Capers arrived at the home with his firearm drawn and that he fired at Aderrien without warning as the boy emerged from the room.
Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone and the Indianola Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News has also attempted to reach the officers directly.
Before his family announced the suit, Aderrien spoke out about the harrowing experience in an exclusive interview that aired on Good Morning America and GMA3 on Tuesday.
“I came out of the room like this,” Aderrien said with his hands above his head as he reflected on the incident in an interview with GMA3 co-anchor DeMarco Morgan.
“It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest,” he added.
Aderrien said that he ran to his mother, who was standing outside, after he got shot.
“I was bleeding — bleeding from my mouth. Then I would just remember singing a song,” he said.
Asked what song he was singing, Aderrien said, “No weapon formed against me — prosper shall.”
The line is a reference to a Bible verse, Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”
Murry previously told GMA3 in an interview that aired on Thursday that her son was shot in the chest by a police officer who responded to their home in Indianola, Mississippi in the early morning hours of May 20 after her son called 911. Murry is now calling for the officer to be fired.
Murry told ABC News she gave Aderrien the phone and asked him to call his grandmother after she said she woke up around 4 a.m., heard a knock on the window and saw her ex-boyfriend standing outside.
“I noticed he was kind of irate. And from dealing with him in the past, I know the irate version of him, what it could lead to,” she told GMA3.
ABC News has reached out to the ex-boyfriend but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
According to Murry, Aderrien first called the police and then he called his grandmother, who also called 911.
She explained that two officers responded to their home in Indianola, and her daughter’s father asked her not to open the door as police tried to break in.
“I heard a shot and I saw my son run out toward where we were,” she said recalling the shooting.
“[Aderrien] fell, bleeding,” Murry added.
Featherstone told ABC News that officer Capers fired the shot that hit Aderrien. Capers was later suspended, Featherstone said.
The Indianola Police Department declined to comment.
Aderrien was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered a bullet had collapsed his lung and cut his liver, according to the family.
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the incident, officers responded to a domestic disturbance at the home and a minor was significantly hurt from an “officer-involved shooting.”
The results of the investigation will be shared with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the agency said.
Asked about the status of the investigation, the Mississippi District Attorney’s Office referred all inquiries to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
“The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is tasked with reviewing and prosecuting all office- involved shootings. That being the case, we do not have any comment nor involvement in this investigation nor prosecution,” the DA’s office told ABC News.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Murry family attorney Carlos Moore told ABC News this incident is an example of excessive force.
“With living in the South, Mississippi, especially, sometimes you feel that you can trust the police a little more when they [are] your own color, your own race,” Moore said, referring to the fact that Capers is Black. “But now this man, this young boy, would never trust law enforcement again.”
Aderrien said he now wants to be a doctor. When asked if it was because of his life-saving care, Aderrien replied, “Well, not only them. As I said, it was God that saved my life and I truly truly believe that.”
Although she’s calling for the officer who shot her son to be fired, Murry said she does not “hate him.”
“You know, I’m not angry,” she told ABC News. “I’m so much over filled with joy at the fact that my son is alive that I don’t — I don’t have room for anger right now. I want justice to be served.”
ABC News’ Katie O’Brien, Kimberly Ruiz and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(HOLLYWOOD, Fla.) — Police are searching for suspects after nine people, including children, were shot and injured along the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk on Florida’s east coast.
Four children between the ages of 1 and 17 were shot Monday night, including a baby between 15 and 18 months old, according to Hollywood police spokesperson Deanna Bettineschi.
The other five victims were adults ages 25 to 65.
The four children remain hospitalized on Wednesday, all in stable condition, according to hospital officials. The injured adults have been treated and released.
The shooting apparently stemmed from an altercation between two groups, and multiple people were detained in the aftermath, Bettineschi said Tuesday.
Two men believed to be involved in the shooting have been arrested on weapons charges, Bettineschi said. Morgan Deslouches, 18, and Keshawn Paul Stewart, 18, both face a concealed carry weapon charge in connection with the incident. Deslouches also has been charged with larceny-grand theft of a firearm and removing the serial number from a firearm, court records show.
Authorities said they’re looking to identify these three people they believe were also involved in the shooting:
“No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrators to justice,” Hollywood Beach Mayor Josh Levy said in a statement Tuesday. “We will utilize every available resource to apprehend those responsible.”
“It is completely unacceptable that innocent people spending time with family on a holiday weekend have been affected by a shooting altercation between two groups who came into our city with guns and no regard for the safety of the law abiding public around them,” Levy added.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds, Peter Charalambous and Okelo Pena contributed to this report.
(PARKLAND, Fla.) — Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in the trial of a former school resource officer charged with felony child neglect for allegedly failing to confront the Parkland school shooter.
Scot Peterson was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland as a school resource officer when a gunman opened fire at the South Florida high school on Feb. 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three staff members.
Peterson, 60, was terminated from his position and charged with multiple counts of child neglect in 2019 after an internal investigation found that he retreated while students were under attack.
Peterson faces up to 95 years in a state prison if convicted on all charges — including seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury — a Broward County judge said during a pre-trial status hearing on Tuesday.
Peterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
An internal probe by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office found that Peterson “did absolutely nothing to mitigate the [Marjory Stoneman Douglas] shooting,” according to a statement released by the agency. Surveillance video and police radio transmissions showed that as the teenage gunman opened fire inside the school’s Building 12, Peterson remained outside and did not enter the school to confront the gunman.
Peterson’s charges stem from the six people killed and four wounded on the third floor of Building 12, after the officer had arrived at the building. Prosecutors say that he also made a false statement, claiming that he did not hear gunfire.
During Tuesday’s status hearing at a Fort Lauderdale courthouse, attorneys debated whether the jury should see the third floor; the defense argued that being in the building is “traumatizing” and that the prejudicial effect would be “extraordinary,” while the state maintained that jurors should be allowed to because all but one of the charges emanated from what happened there.
The judge said he plans to issue a written order on the matter by June 5, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV reported.
Peterson had been a sheriff’s deputy in Broward County for more than 30 years until he was terminated from his position when the criminal complaint was filed against him in June 2019.
At the time of his arrest, legal experts called the charges unprecedented. The move was largely applauded by the Parkland community, with the parent of one teen who was killed on the third floor calling Peterson a “coward.”
The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school, was sentenced to life in prison last year after pleading guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
(NEW YORK) — A retired New York City Police Department sergeant and two purported Chinese agents used an elderly father as bait in an alleged plot to repatriate a former Chinese government official living in New Jersey, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, where trial opens Wednesday.
The retired sergeant, Michael McMahon, and two men charged with acting as agents of China, are the first defendants to stand trial in the U.S. over what the Chinese government called Operation Fox Hunt, a worldwide attempt to coerce Chinese nationals living abroad to return to China through tactics including harassment, stalking and threats.
The victim in this case is identified only as John Doe-1 and China said he was wanted for corruption. Instead of operating with the approval and coordination of the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said China dispatched its own prosecutor and police officer “to engage in unsanctioned and illegal conduct on behalf of the PRC to coerce the targeted victims to return to the PRC.”
According to court records, McMahon, Yong Zhu, Congying Zhen and others forced John Doe-1’s elderly father to travel from China so he could warn his son, in a surprise visit, about the consequences of refusing to return to China. Zhu is accused of hiring McMahon, a private investigator, to surveil John Doe-1. Zheng is accused of harassing John Doe-1 and his adult daughter.
According to the criminal complaint, McMahon at one point suggested the men could “harass [John Doe-1]. Park outside his home and let him know we are there.” At another point, two conspirators, including Zheng, “visited John Doe-1’s residence, banged on his front door, walked into his yard, and ultimately left a message taped to the residence that threatened John Doe-1 and John Doe-1’s family with dire consequences should they fail to return to the PRC,” according to the complaint.
McMahon, who has pleaded not guilty, argued he was unaware of the alleged scheme’s true intent.
“Mr. McMahon agreed to investigate and conduct surveillance, as he is legally permitted to do as a licensed private investigator – not that Mr. McMahon agreed to, or was even aware, that the investigation was at the direction or control of a foreign government or official,” defense attorney Lawrence Lustberg wrote.
The Department of Justice said in April that there was evidence of expanding espionage and security activity by the Chinese government on U.S. soil.
“[It] shows how brazen they are, how unwilling they are to work under the laws that apply in free democracies,” David Newman, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for National Security at the Department of Justice, told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas at the time. “And it demonstrates that they choose to project their authoritarian system outside their borders.”
(ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.) — More than 50 years ago, a woman was found dead inside a trunk that had been left in a field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her identity has remained a mystery — until now.
“This is a case that has perplexed the department for a long time,” Assistant Chief Mike Kovacsev of the St. Petersburg Police Department said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This was always known as the ‘trunk lady’ case.”
The woman has been identified as Sylvia June Atherton, 41, of Tucson, Arizona. She left behind five children, according to Kovacsev.
Atherton’s body was found wrapped in plastic inside the trunk on Oct. 31, 1969, which was Halloween. Witnesses told police at the time that they saw two men arrive in a pickup truck and place the trunk in the field before driving away, Kovacsev said.
For years, detectives searched for missing person reports that matched the description of the victim, but to no avail. The case went cold and Atherton’s body was buried as a “Jane Doe” in a local cemetery, according to Kovacsev.
In 2010, as part of an effort to identify unknown victims, police exhumed Atherton’s body to try to get a DNA sample. But the remains were “too degraded and, again, the case went cold,” Kovacsev said.
In late 2022 and early 2023, detectives revisited the case and found a hair sample that was never tested. They sent the sample to a private laboratory, which was able to produce a DNA profile. The lab was then able to run the DNA profile through a genealogy database, which led police to identify Atherton and locate some of her living relatives, according to Kovacsev.
“That is one of the things I want to highlight with cold cases — it takes persistence,” Kovacsev said. “It takes going back and looking at things that may not have been available to individuals back in 1969. But more importantly, … what could we have missed.”
Detectives learned that Atherton had five children and seemingly no ties to St. Petersburg, which is part of Florida’s Tampa Bay area. Prior to her death, she left Tucson, Arizona with her children and took two of them to her ex-husband in Chicago. She was never seen by her children again, Kovacsev said.
“We don’t have the resolution on who killed her yet,” Kovacsev noted. “This is where like amateur sleuths will come in. This is where we’re asking for assistance to kind of put the pieces together.”
Detectives now know that the trunk Atherton’s body was found in belonged to her. They also know that she was remarried and her husband never reported her missing. He died in 1999, according to Kovacsev.
“So you can see there’s some inferences there that we have to kind of fill in the gaps,” he added. “But mainly, we want to bring forward the fact that she has a name now after 53 years.”
Atherton’s daughter, Syllen Gates, told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS-TV that she feels “relief.”
“A sad relief that they finally found her,” Gates said, “and, of course, this was a terrible way to die.”
