(NEW YORK) — U.S. Space Command will stay in Colorado after President Joe Biden decided to undo Trump-era plans to relocate the center to Alabama — and some are arguing the move was a political decision, despite the White House’s denials.
The decision, announced Monday, comes amid Biden’s feud with Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville over the latter’s blockade of hundreds of military appointments in an attempt to change the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
When asked whether Tuberville’s blockade influenced Biden’s decision, a senior administration official said, “No.”
“For the president, this decision came down to operational readiness and what is in the best interest of our national security,” the official said, adding the move would have pushed back the opening of a new facility to the mid-2030s.
Administration officials said Biden consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and reviewed the advice of military leaders when choosing to permanently establish Space Command in Colorado Springs, where it has been headquartered since its establishment in 2019.
Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force “have worked diligently to ensure the basing decision resulted from an objective and deliberate process informed by data and analysis, in compliance with federal law and [Defense Department] policy.”
Tuberville, though, quickly blasted the move as political payback — and vowed “this is absolutely not over.”
“The Biden Administration has been talking a lot about readiness over the past few months, but no Administration has done more to damage our military readiness in my lifetime,” Tuberville said in a lengthy statement. “They’ve politicized our military, destroyed our recruiting, misused our tax dollars for their extremist social agenda, and now they are putting Space Command headquarters in a location that didn’t even make the top three.”
“This decision to bypass the three most qualified sites looks like blatant patronage politics, and it sets a dangerous precedent that military bases are now to be used as rewards for political supporters rather than for our security,” he continued.
Tuberville’s been single-handedly holding up hundreds of military nominations for months, drawing praise from many of his Republican colleagues but earning the ire of the Biden administration.
The president last week went after Tuberville for obstructing nominations, stating the “nonsense must stop right now.”
“A growing cascade of damage and disruption all because one senator from Alabama — and 48 Republicans refusing to stand up to him to lift the blockade — over the Pentagon policy offering servicemen and women, their families, access to reproductive health care rights they deserve — if they’re stationed in states that deny them,” Biden said at an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the military’s desegregation.
Members of the Alabama congressional delegation, including Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, echoed Tuberville’s comments as they criticized the administration’s decision. Sewell said the choice to keep Space Command in Colorado “bows to the whims of politics over merit,” while Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the action warranted a congressional investigation.
Colorado lawmakers, on the other hand, praised the move.
“This thoughtful and correct decision guarantees operational success for decades to come and improves our national defense,” Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Army Gen. James Dickinson, the current commander of the U.S. Space Command, said he welcomed Biden’s final basing decision.
“Our priorities to ensure mission success and care for our people remain unchanged,” he said. “We will continue to meet our directives to deliver space effects to the warfighter and protect and defend the space domain.”
The news that Space Command would be moved to Alabama was announced in January 2021, during the final days of former President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump later took credit for steering the Space Command to Huntsville, telling a radio host, “I single-handedly said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama.'”
The Air Force at the time said Huntsville beat out six final contenders — including Colorado Springs — as it provided “a large, qualified workforce, quality schools, superior infrastructure capacity, and low initial and recurring costs.”
But that decision was also fraught with debate about whether it was politically-motivated. While the inspector general for the Department of Defense said its departmental review found the move complied with federal law and department policy, the Government Accountability Office found the process for choosing the base had “shortfalls in its transparency and credibility.”
-ABC’s Ben Gittleson, Matt Seyler and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — There’s no apparent connection between Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann and the killings of sex workers near Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2006, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The four New Jersey victims were found dead along the Black Horse Pike roadway in Egg Harbor Township and were believed to be murdered by a serial killer, New York ABC station WABC reported.
Detectives investigating the Black Horse Pike killings have met with Long Island authorities “to compare timelines, dates, methodologies, etc.,” and concluded that “there does not seem to be a connection,” Atlantic City Prosecutor William Reynolds said in a statement.
“Authorities will continue to follow all leads until the perpetrator of those crimes is brought to justice,” Reynolds said of the New Jersey slayings, urging anyone with information to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-909-7800.
Meanwhile, Heuermann is set to appear in court on Tuesday in connection with the murders of three sex workers whose bodies were found on Long Island in 2010.
Heuermann, a New York City architect and father of two, was arrested on July 13 for the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. The young women disappeared in 2009 and 2010.
Heuermann’s attorney has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007, though he has not been charged in that case.
Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce after his arrest. She told ABC News on Monday, “[My children] have been crying themselves to sleep and I’ve been crying myself to sleep too.”
Police last week concluded their search at Heuermann’s suburban Massapequa Park, Long Island, home and investigators are now sifting through the evidence recovered there.
Police also dug up Heuermann’s backyard during the search, though Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said last week that authorities had still not ruled in or ruled out whether any alleged victims were killed at the house.
(NEW YORK) — Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann is set to appear in court on Tuesday as authorities continue to investigate the slayings.
Police last week concluded their search at Heuermann’s suburban Massapequa Park, Long Island, home and investigators are now sifting through the evidence recovered there.
Police also dug up Heuermann’s backyard during the search, though Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said last week that authorities had still not ruled in or ruled out whether any alleged victims were killed at the house.
Heuermann, a New York City architect and father of two, was arrested on July 13 for the murders of three sex workers — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — whose bodies were found covered in burlap on Long Island’s South Shore in 2010. The young women disappeared in 2009 and 2010.
Heuermann’s wife filed for divorce after his arrest.
Heuermann’s attorney has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The Long Island resident is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007, though he has not been charged in that case.
(MEMPHIS) — Tennessee’s lead law enforcement agency is investigating an officer-involved shooting of a man who allegedly opened fire outside a Jewish school in Memphis on Monday afternoon.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced in a press release on Monday evening that it has launched a probe into the incident at the request of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
Preliminary information indicates that an armed man, whose identity has not yet been released, attempted to enter a school on South White Station Road in Memphis just before 12:30 p.m. CT. The man reportedly fired shots before driving away in a car, according to the TBI.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. CT, a Memphis police officer located the suspect’s vehicle a few miles away on McCory Avenue. The driver reportedly got out of the car holding a gun and, “for reasons still under investigation, the officer fired his service weapon, striking the individual,” the TBI said.
The man was subsequently transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. No officers were injured in the incident, according to the TBI.
“TBI agents continue to work to independently determine the series of events leading to the officer-involved shooting, including collecting evidence and conducting interviews,” the agency said. “Throughout the process, investigative findings will be shared with the District Attorney General for his review and consideration. The TBI acts solely as fact-finders in its cases and does not determine whether the actions of an officer were justified in these types of matters; that decision rests with the District Attorney General requesting TBI’s involvement.”
“The TBI does not identify the officers involved in these types of incidents and instead refers questions of that nature to the respective department to answer as it sees fit,” the agency added.
Earlier Monday, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said in a statement that her officers “mitigated a potential mass shooting situation.”
Officers were dispatched to the Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South after receiving 911 calls about a gunman outside of the school, according to police.
The unidentified suspect allegedly tried to gain entry into the school and opened fire outside when he couldn’t get in, police said. A screengrab from the school’s security footage, obtained by ABC News, shows a man going through the pre-entrance doors holding what appears to be a handgun.
“Thankfully that school had a great safety procedure process in place and avoided anyone being harmed or injured at that scene,” Memphis Police Assistant Chief Don Crowe said during a press conference on Monday afternoon.
The suspect fled the scene in a maroon pickup truck with California license plates, but school officials were able to provide officers with images of the man and a description of his vehicle. Officers were soon able to locate the suspect’s vehicle and conducted a traffic stop about 3 miles from the school, according to police.
The suspect allegedly exited the vehicle with a handgun and an officer shot him. The suspect was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.
The TBI was contacted to conduct an investigation “due to the suspect’s condition and in accordance with policy,” according to police.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Crowe declined to give details on what prompted the officer to fire their weapon or if the suspect fired any shots during the traffic stop.
“I personally truly believe we prevented a tragedy,” the assistant police chief told reporters.
ABC News’ Kerem Inal, Christopher Looft, Ivan Pereira and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS) — Tennessee’s lead law enforcement agency is investigating an officer-involved shooting of a man who allegedly opened fire outside a Jewish school in Memphis on Monday afternoon.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced in a press release on Monday evening that it has launched a probe into the incident at the request of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
Preliminary information indicates that an armed man, whose identity has not yet been released, attempted to enter a school on South White Station Road in Memphis just before 12:30 p.m. CT. The man reportedly fired shots before driving away in a car, according to the TBI.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. CT, a Memphis police officer located the suspect’s vehicle a few miles away on McCory Avenue. The driver reportedly got out of the car holding a gun and, “for reasons still under investigation, the officer fired his service weapon, striking the individual,” the TBI said.
The man was subsequently transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. No officers were injured in the incident, according to the TBI.
“TBI agents continue to work to independently determine the series of events leading to the officer-involved shooting, including collecting evidence and conducting interviews,” the agency said. “Throughout the process, investigative findings will be shared with the District Attorney General for his review and consideration. The TBI acts solely as fact-finders in its cases and does not determine whether the actions of an officer were justified in these types of matters; that decision rests with the District Attorney General requesting TBI’s involvement.”
“The TBI does not identify the officers involved in these types of incidents and instead refers questions of that nature to the respective department to answer as it sees fit,” the agency added.
Earlier Monday, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said in a statement that her officers “mitigated a potential mass shooting situation.”
Officers were dispatched to the Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South after receiving 911 calls about a gunman outside of the school, according to police.
The unidentified suspect allegedly tried to gain entry into the school and opened fire outside when he couldn’t get in, police said. A screengrab from the school’s security footage, obtained by ABC News, shows a man going through the pre-entrance doors holding what appears to be a handgun.
“Thankfully that school had a great safety procedure process in place and avoided anyone being harmed or injured at that scene,” Memphis Police Assistant Chief Don Crowe said during a press conference on Monday afternoon.
The suspect fled the scene in a maroon pickup truck with California license plates, but school officials were able to provide officers with images of the man and a description of his vehicle. Officers were soon able to locate the suspect’s vehicle and conducted a traffic stop about 3 miles from the school, according to police.
The suspect allegedly exited the vehicle with a handgun and an officer shot him. The suspect was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.
The TBI was contacted to conduct an investigation “due to the suspect’s condition and in accordance with policy,” according to police.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Crowe declined to give details on what prompted the officer to fire their weapon or if the suspect fired any shots during the traffic stop.
“I personally truly believe we prevented a tragedy,” the assistant police chief told reporters.
ABC News’ Kerem Inal, Christopher Looft, Ivan Pereira and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Five days a week, at 8:30 a.m., two-year-old Catherine Arias arrives at a children’s hospital in Valhalla, New York — 10 miles north of New York City.
Her mother says she’s often tired, just starting to wake up, but she has a full day of therapies to get to: depending on the day, physical and occupational to improve her strength and motor skills, speech therapy to improve her language skills and even feeding therapy to make sure she’s eating well, all of which lasts until 11:30 a.m.
This has been Catherine’s life for the past year, ever since she was accidentally shot during a drive-by shooting in the Bronx in January 2022 while sitting in a parked car with her mother.
Her parents, Miraida Gomez and Gregory Arias, spoke to ABC News exclusively about Catherine’s recovery more than one year after the shooting.
They say her story is a reminder of the far-reaching effects of gun violence, particularly on young victims, and how the trauma — both for the patient and the families — doesn’t end after the initial discharge from the hospital.
“It’s definitely a lifelong battle after the incident,” Gomez told ABC News. “I don’t look at my child as disabled, I don’t look at her with any disabilities. But the reality is that these are her medical diagnoses…Following the incident, it’s affected our mental health.”
Shot while sitting in a parked car
On Jan. 19, 2022, two days before Catherine’s first birthday, Gomez and Arias say they left their two older children — Delilah, 7, and Haylee, 12 — at their grandparents’ house for a sleepover and left to go home with Catherine.
They say they stopped at Leroy Pharmacy on Valentine Avenue and 198th Street in the Bronx to pick up Gomez’s thyroid medication. Arias went inside while Gomez and Catherine waited in the back seat of the parked car outside.
While Arias was inside, gunshots rang out. Gomez — holding Catherine — dropped down behind the driver’s seat. When she sat up, Gomez said she realized her toddler was half-gasping, half-crying and her baby pink coat was red with blood.
A stray bullet had hit the car, entering Catherine’s left cheek and exiting at the top of her head.
Gomez said she got out of the car, immediately began performing CPR on Catherine and when her husband exited the pharmacy she told him to call 911.
“She just tells me, ‘Call 911, Catherine has been shot’ and the rest of the time is super slow down and I couldn’t even focus on three simple numbers: 9-1-1,” Arias told ABC News. “And that was the beginning of the, I wouldn’t say nightmare, but of the surreal experience of knowing that an 11-month-old child — your child — was shot.”
An ambulance arrived and took Catherine to Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, where she stayed for two weeks.
Four months in the hospital
During that time, Gomez said Catherine had surgery to remove parts of her frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes on the left side of the brain. The left side of her skull was shattered by the bullet, which required her to receive a titanium implant.
Catherine also experienced a stroke early in recovery, which resulted in a weakening of the muscles on the right side of her body.
“We were initially told that she may not be able to walk again, her speech may not be the same,” Gomez said. “So that’s pretty much what we were looking at when they gave us the initial diagnosis following the injury.”
After two weeks, Catherine was transferred to Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, where Dr. Kathy Silverman, unit chief of the pediatric, adolescent and traumatic brain injury units, was her attending physician for the entire length of her stay.
“Catherine was a normal child, she was healthy, she was developing normally,” Silverman said, but the gunshot wound came with major consequences. “From then on, she had weakness on the right side of her body, she had difficulty swallowing, she had visual deficits. she had difficulty with bowel and bladder issues, she had difficulty with moving, all the things that a child is able to do.”
Catherine slowly began improving and was eventually discharged from inpatient therapy in April 2022, but she continues to receive a variety of therapies — feeding, occupation, physical and speech — every day with each session lasting about half an hour, her parents say.
A GoFundMe set up by a relative helped make sure they were fed and able to pay their bills. Additionally, because of Catherine’s disability, her parents say they were able to get Medicaid, which helps cover the cost of her therapies. They’re still waiting to see if they’ll be approved for Social Security disability which, for children, is approved according to the parents’ income.
Arias’s job involves driving trucks, so Gomez is usually the parent who takes Catherine to her therapy sessions. She said her consulting job has allowed her to work remotely.
Recovery more than a year later
Catherine initially had a feeding tube when she was in the hospital and, after it was removed, a swallow study showed thinner liquids were going down the wrong way into her lungs.
Because of this, she has to drink thicker liquids, Gina Longarzo, a senior speech-language pathologist at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. That’s one of the reasons Catherine is in feeding therapy.
Catherine has since been able to have thinner liquids, but not yet to the consistency of water, Longarzo says. She also is working on trying new kinds of food.
“We’re working on aversion because when a child goes through a trauma like [Catherine] did, they can become aversive to food, because it’s something they can control,” Longarzo said. “So, they’re not controlling a lot of what happened to them, but they can control what they eat.”
Although physicians cannot know for certain how long Catherine would benefit from continuing therapies, Silverman said she will need them, likely, for years.
“It’s a lifelong recovery,” she said. “This has changed the course of her life when that happened to her. It’s changed the life of her family as well.”
Research has shown that there has been an increase in gun violence, particularly, among children, since the COVID-19 pandemic.
One study, led by Dr. Jonathan Jay, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health, looked at fatal and non-fatal shootings in four cities: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
“We saw that shootings affecting children, they nearly doubled across those cities, and that the impacts were disproportionately experienced by children of color,” Jay, who studies gun violence and its impacts, told ABC News. “So, the racial disparities, the gaps between children of color and white children, which were already large, they got even larger.”
He added, “In fact, the only group for which the pandemic shooting rate did not increase was non-Hispanic white children, so there was something going on in those cities where white children were able to stay safe while all other children were not.”
While fatal gun injuries can be devastating for a family, non-fatal gun injuries can also have devastating impacts. Jay said between two and four times as many gun injuries are not fatal compared to those that are fatal.
“Even if you survive a firearm injury, there are important lasting physical health effects,” he said. “Many firearm injuries cause long-term physical disability, and also really important mental health effects, so we expect to see anxiety, depression, PTSD.”
‘This has affected our mental health’
Gomez said this has affected her own mental health as well as the mental of their other two daughters.
“Whenever there’s a lockdown at the school, it’s enough to send our 12-year-old into a panic,” Gomez said. “Our seven-year-old started to decline in her in her studies, because all she could talk about was ‘bad people shooting.’ So, we’ve gone through a lot as a family.”
Gomez said she suffers from anxiety, PTSD and intrusive thoughts and while therapy has helped her, it’s still an ongoing battle.
“In the moment, if I’m at a red light, I’m driving, sometimes the thoughts of getting shot comes into my head, and that’s because I was sitting right next to my daughter when she got shot,” Gomez said. “Whenever I hear that the schools are on a lockdown, the only thing I can think of is, ‘How can I get my babies out of the school safely?'”
Arias added that for a while, he wasn’t even able to look outside of a window without the visualization of Catherine just after she was shot. He’s still worried about taking his children out sometimes.
“That’s the debilitating part for us,” he said. “It’s just, we can’t enjoy outside time, can’t even enjoy going to the park. What if people just decide to go off on a rampage and get into it with each other over nonsense and we’re just there and it’s like, there’s no way out?”
When Catherine was born, Arias said the family moved to the eastern part of the Bronx because they believed it would be quieter and more residential than the western part. The shooting occurred in their old neighborhood.
Now the family is considering leaving the Bronx altogether and either moving to the suburbs or even out of state completely.
Catherine’s parents said the experience has made them stronger as a family unit and they don’t want Catherine’s whole life to be defined by this one incident, but they are nervous about how they will one day have to explain what happened to her.
“As I see my kid getting older, how am I going to explain to her that she got shot?” Gomez said. “How is that going to affect her mental health and understanding. You know, ‘Hey, my right side may be weak because I got shot,’ or ‘I have half of my skull as a plate because I got shot.'”
She added, “That’s not normal. A kid shouldn’t have to live this experience, be told this by their parents. So, it’s heavy.”
(NORTH CAROLINA) — Police in Lincolnton, North Carolina, arrested a man on felony hit and run charges on Monday after six migrants were allegedly hit by a vehicle outside a store on Sunday.
Daniel Gonzalez, 68, was arrested Monday night after turning up with family members at the Lincolnton Police Department, officials said in a statement.
Family members told the authorities that Gonzalez explained to them he hit the migrants by accident Sunday, according to the LPD. The family members said Gonzalez told them he hit the gas by accident while he was parking, and then panicked and left the scene, the LPD said in a release.
Authorities said Gonzalez has been cooperating with detectives. He was arrested and charged with felony hit and run and received a $50,000 secure bond, police said.
Six people were allegedly hit by a car outside a store in Lincolnton in what authorities said they suspected at the time was an intentional vehicular assault on a group of migrant workers.
Authorities on Sunday asked for the public’s help in identifying the driver, providing photos of the vehicle, a black SUV.
The six people hit were taken to Atrium Health Lincoln and released the same day, a police official told ABC News Monday. The victims had various injuries including broken and sprained ankles and some abrasions.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Armando T. Garcia contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The wife of Rex Heuermann, the suspect arrested on suspicion of murdering three women in the Gilgo Beach, Long Island, area told ABC News Monday that “everything is destroyed” following the arrest of her husband.
Asa Ellerup told ABC News in a phone call that she and her two adult children are adjusting to the reality that they have a family member who has been arrested on suspicion of being a serial killer.
“[My children] have been crying themselves to sleep and I’ve been crying myself to sleep too,” Ellerup, who has filed for divorce from Heuermann, told ABC News.
Ellerup said that following the search of the family home, her family’s belongings — which are now piled in boxes or otherwise strewn across their floors — are a constant reminder of Heuermann’s alleged crimes.
“Every time my kids go through something … they open a box. Every single time they cry,” Ellerup said. “Everything is destroyed,” she said.
Ellerup told ABC News that the situation has prompted her son, who is developmentally delayed, to sleep in a chair at night.
Earlier this month, Heuermann was arrested in Manhattan and charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found covered in burlap along Ocean Parkway on Long Island’s South Shore in December 2010. He was also named the “prime suspect” in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a fourth woman discovered in the same spot, police said.
Heurmann has pleaded not guilty. He is expected in a Suffolk County Court on Tuesday.
(LOS ANGELES) — A part of Los Angeles County is under quarantine following the discovery of an invasive fruit fly from Asia, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
State officials found 20 Tau fruit flies in an unincorporated area of Stevenson Ranch, close to the city of Santa Clarita.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture has quarantined 79 square miles of the area, the department said last week in a press release.
The Tau fruit fly is a major pest for agriculture and natural resources, CDFA said, including various fruits and vegetables such as cucurbits, avocado, citrus, tomatoes, peppers, as well as some plants native to the state.
This is the first time there’s been a Tau fruit fly quarantine in the Western Hemisphere, according to the CDFA.
“It’s believed the fly was introduced by travelers bringing uninspected produce into the state– a common pathway for invasive species,” the California Department of Food and Agriculture said in the press release.
The Tau fruit fly was first spotted in California in 2016 in San Bernardino County and has been seen and destroyed three other times, according to CDFA.
State officials have advised residents in the quarantine zone not to move any vegetables or fruit from their property as part of the efforts to stop the spread of the Tau fruit fly.
Residents can consume or process the fruits and vegetables wherever they picked them up, “Otherwise, they should be disposed of by double-bagging in plastic and placing the bags in a bin specifically for garbage,” CDFA said.
Other insects can also be harmful to agriculture.
Last year, agriculture and park departments told people if they came across the spotted lanternfly they should kill it because of its impact on agriculture.
The New York City Parks Department offers similar guidance on its website.
“Harming our city’s wildlife is broadly prohibited, but in an effort to slow the spread of this troublesome species, the current guidance remains: if you see a spotted lanternfly, please squish and dispose of this invasive pest,” the New York City Parks Department said at the time.
The spotted lanternfly also originated in Asia but was first found in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014, and soon after in other states in the Northeast, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
The insect, known scientifically as the Lycorma delicatula, feeds on at least 70 different species of trees, as well as vines and shrubs, including fruit trees, grapevines and several hardwoods, according to a report from the University of Michigan.
Additional information on the Tau fruit fly can be found on the CDFA’s website.
(NEW YORK) — The shooting happened around 1 a.m. outside the Logan Square Shopping Center in Lansing, Michigan, according to police.
At least nine mass shootings rocked cities across the nation over the weekend, leaving five people dead and 56 wounded, according to a national website that tracks gun violence.
The mass casualty shootings occurred at parties, outside of a nightclub and a convenience store, during a street game of dominoes and even at a community meeting on how to combat gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as a single event with four or more victims either injured or killed.
The weekend violence upped the number of mass shootings in 2023 to 419, with still five months left in the year. The number of mass shootings this year has already surpassed the total number that occurred in all of 2019, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
According to the website’s data, an average of two mass shootings have occurred every day this year. In all of 2022, there were 647 mass shootings nationwide, slightly down from 690 that occurred in 2021.
1 dead, 19 injured in Muncie, Indiana
One of the worst incidents occurred early Sunday in Muncie, Indiana, where gunfire broke out at a large block party, according to the Muncie Police Department.
The shooting unfolded at about 1:14 a.m. at a business in the city’s Industry neighborhood, police said.
A 30-year-old man killed in the shooting was identified by the Delaware County Coroner’s Officer as Joseph Bonner. At least 17 of the 19 people injured in the shooting suffered gunshot wounds, police said.
Two of the people injured were juveniles, authorities said.
“On Sunday morning, our community was shaken to the core by violence,” Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour said in a statement Monday morning.
Ridenour said a motive for the shooting is under investigation, but added, “At this time, we do not believe that this was the act of a single gunman, with the intent to target a specific group of people.”
No arrests have been announced at this time.
9 women injured, 1 fatally, in drive-by shooting in Chicago
One woman was killed and eight others wounded in Chicago when multiple gunmen opened fire on them in a residential neighborhood, police said.
The shooting erupted just before 1 a.m. during a birthday party in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood when a black Jeep pulled up and multiple gunmen got out and opened fire on the group, according to a police incident report.
A 21-year-old woman was shot in the face and later pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, police said. A 28-year-old woman was shot eight times in the incident and was taken to Mt. Sinai in critical condition. The other gunshot victims ranged in age from 20 to 33 and were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A motive for the shooting is currently under investigation. Police said investigators are working to identify the gunmen.
The shooting came during a violent weekend in Chicago. Between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday, a total of 47 people were shot, five fatally, in 29 separate shooting incidents across the city, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Michigan shopping center shooting leaves 5 wounded
Gunfire erupted early Sunday in the parking lot of a Lansing, Michigan, shopping center, leaving five people wounded, two critically, and several people detained for questioning, police said.
The shooting unfolded about 1 a.m. outside the Logan Square Shopping Center, according to the Lansing Police Department.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found a large crowd with multiple gunshot victims, police said.
The victims ranged in age from 16 to 26, police said. Two of the victims were taken to local hospitals in critical condition, according to police.
Police officials said several firearms were recovered at the scene and several people were detained for questioning, but no arrests have been announced.
5 shot Seattle community outreach meeting
Five people were shot on Friday night at a Seattle community outreach meeting, according to the Seattle Police Department.
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz told ABC affiliate station KOMO in Seattle the shooting broke out just before 9 a.m. in the Rainier Valley neighborhood. Two of the gunshot victims, both women, were critically injured, police said.
All of the victims, according to police, were attending the community outreach meeting on combating poverty and gun violence in the Rainier Valley neighborhood.
“Honestly, this is really disturbing when you have victims who are trying to do an outreach effort, trying to help people out and get people on the right path and this is what they get hit with,” Diaz said.
No suspects have been identified.
Dominoes game prompts Fort Lauderdale shooting
Gunfire broke out during a game of dominoes in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that left four people wounded, according to police and witnesses.
The shooting occurred about 11 p.m. on Friday outside a convenience store, where a group of people were playing dominoes, a witness told ABC affiliate station WPLG in Miami.
Police suspect the incident started as a fight between two people and escalated. Witness Ashraf Hanna, who works at the convenience store, told WPLG that he heard at least six shots and saw at least one of the injured victims holding his bleeding hand in the aftermath.
No arrests were immediately announced.
7 shot outside Texas nightclub
Seven people were shot outside a Port Arthur, Texas, nightclub early Sunday, according to police.
The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. outside the Opulence Lounge, police said. One of the victims was critically injured, according to police.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
4 shot, 1 fatally, in Tampa Bay
A man was killed and three others were wounded Friday night in Tampa Bay, Florida, according to police.
Police officers were called to the city’s Jackson Heights neighborhood around 9:47 a.m. to investigate a report of gunfire, officials said. When officers arrived at the scene they found a black 4-door Infiniti sedan abandoned with “several visible pools of blood in and around the car, but no apparent victims,” the Tampa Police Department said in a statement.
Officers later learned that four men suffering from gunshot wounds had been taken to a local hospital in a private vehicle, according to police. One of the wounded men was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
No arrests were announced and a motive for the shooting is under investigation.
Los Angeles shooting leaves 1 dead, 3 injured
Four people were shot, one fatally, when gunfire erupted Saturday night in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to police.
The shooting broke out just before 11 a.m. Sunday, according to police. Officers who were sent to the scene to investigate a report of shots fired, discovered a man shot dead on the street, officials said.
Officers later learned that three other people, a 29-year-old man and two women, arrived at a local hospital on their own and were treated for gunshot wounds.
No arrests were announced and a motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
Shooting in suburban Chicago leaves 1 dead, 4 shot
Gunfire broke out at social gathering in a suburban Chicago community on Friday night, leaving one person dead and three other people wounded, authorities said.
The shooting occurred about 7:15 p.m. at a gathering in Ford Heights, southwest of Chicago, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
A woman gravely injured the shooting was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said. Three other women and a man were also hospitalized with gunshot wounds, the sheriff’s office said.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation. No arrests were announced.
