(NEW YORK) — Dramatic new body camera footage showing Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies in Houston, Texas, opening fire through a window while responding to a reported break-in has been released.
In the new body-worn video of the incident released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which spans about four minutes in total, two officers can be seen approaching an upstairs Houston apartment in the early hours of Feb. 3. After encountering a window screen out of its window frame and set aside in front of the apartment, an officer can be seen knocking on the door before announcing, “Sheriff’s Office.”
The video shows that she then moves away from the door, joining the other officer at the top of the staircase.
A car alarm then begins to go off, and one of the officers says something to the other, and the two begin shooting. One of the officers re-loads their weapon and continues firing before the two retreat downstairs and notify colleagues through their radios that shots were fired.
The video contains a narrative of events from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office that reads that at 2:10 a.m. local time on Feb. 3, 2024, deputies responded to a call at 90 Uvalde Road. “The caller reported someone was inside her apartment,” the text on the video says.
At 2:14 a.m., the first officer responded, met the caller and a maintenance worker and “made sure the apartment was safe and secure,” per the video text.
A second deputy arrived to assist when a “resident of a neighboring apartment approached the deputy and reported that someone had broken into another nearby second-floor apartment,” according to text captions on the video.
According to the Sheriff’s Office account in the video, the deputies went to investigate the reported break-in and saw “the front window screen removed, broken glass and the blinds raised, near the front door.” The deputies knocked, and one of them announced their presence. It is unclear from the body camera footage where the glass was broken.
The woman, who was later identified as Eboni Pouncy, a friend of the woman who lived in the apartment, sustained a total of five gunshot wounds to the leg and torso, according to her attorney, Ben Crump, who reacted to the release of the video on Monday, calling it “evidence of the unnecessary and excessive force.”
None of Pouncy’s vital organs were struck by bullets, but the long-term effects of her injuries are yet to be determined, according to Crump. He told ABC News that Pouncy is traumatized by the incident.
Pouncy’s friend, who was with her the previous night, said that she had forgotten her keys to her apartment. The friend told Pouncy to break the window so they could enter, she said at a news conference last Friday.
The two had been in the house for about 20 minutes when they heard a loud banging on the door, Pouncy’s friend said. Pouncy grabbed her gun and went to the door before she was fired upon by the deputies, according to the friend.
On Monday, Crump said Pouncy, 28, was the woman struck by the bullets. He told ABC News she was shot five times in the torso and legs and is lucky to still be alive today.
“This newly-released body cam footage is evidence of the unnecessary and excessive force used against her,” Crump told ABC News in a statement Monday. “We demand that the deputies involved be immediately held accountable for the terrible injuries.”
“The shooting of Eboni Pouncy should have never happened,” Crump’s statement continued. “The video shows the deputies that responded to Eboni’s friend’s house shot first and asked questions later. It is concerningly clear by the video and Eboni’s injuries that deputies were not justified in shooting her five times.”
Since the incident, both officers have been placed on administrative leave, according to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s department and local district attorney are investigating, and the case is being referred to a grand jury.
In cell phone video acquired by KTRK, an ABC-owned station, officers can be heard directing Pouncy’s friend to come down the stairs after the shooting.
“I live here. Please don’t shoot,” she responds before officers order her to the ground and handcuff her.
Pouncy was taken to the hospital by paramedics for her injuries.
(NEW YORK) — A major winter snowstorm is hitting the northeastern United States on Tuesday and could wreak havoc on roadways from New York City to Boston.
The fast-moving storm is expected to last only from Tuesday morning to Tuesday afternoon, but it could bring up to 1 foot of snow to parts of the Northeast.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Feb 13, 9:21 AM
Over 1,400 flights canceled
More than 1,400 flights have been canceled Tuesday, with airports in New York City and Boston hit the hardest.
Feb 13, 8:18 AM
Snow totals so far
The storm is hitting fast, with some in the Northeast waking up to massive snowfalls.
Jim Thorpe in eastern Pennsylvania has recorded 10.5 inches of snow so far, while Port Jervis, by the New York-New Jersey border, has seen 8.5 inches.
Feb 13, 8:07 AM
‘Avoid travel if possible’
The wet, heavy snow slamming the Northeast is bringing dangerous conditions to the roads.
Snowfall rates have reached 1 to 2 inches per hour Tuesday morning.
“Use extra caution or simply avoid travel if possible this morning,” the National Weather Service in New York advised.
Feb 13, 7:12 AM
Over 1,000 flights canceled
More than 1,000 flights have been canceled Tuesday, with airports in New York City and Boston hit the hardest.
Feb 13, 5:52 AM
50 million Americans on alert for heavy snow
Some 50 million Americans are on alert for heavy snow in the northeastern United States on Tuesday, as a storm is forecast to hit the region in the morning hours before exiting by the afternoon.
It’s the first time in two years that the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for New York City.
Rain began changing to snow early Tuesday and much of New York City was already under snow by 5 a.m. ET. The freezing line hadn’t quite made it to Philadelphia at that time but was expected to soon.
Since this is a wet snow falling into temperatures that are generally at or above freezing, the initial accumulation on the ground will melt before it starts to stick.
Snowfall rates are expected to be moderate, from 1 to 2 inches per hour, with heavier bands mixed in at times.
Winds are forecast to gust 20 to 40 miles per hour, blowing the snow and reducing visibility. However, due to the wet nature of the snow, blizzard-like conditions were generally not expected and should only be short-lived if they occur at all.
Coastal flooding was also expected to be an issue from Washington, D.C., to Delaware to New Jersey and Long Island and then from Cape Cod to Boston and Portland.
Feb 13, 4:00 AM
New York City, Boston close schools
New York City’s public schools, the largest system in the country, will be closed Tuesday, with classes moving to remote learning, Mayor Eric Adams announced.
This marks the first time in two years that New York City has been under a winter storm watch.
Boston Public Schools will also be closed Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — A major winter snowstorm is hitting the northeastern United States on Tuesday and could wreak havoc on roadways from New York City to Boston.
The fast-moving storm is expected to last only from Tuesday morning to Tuesday afternoon, but it could bring up to 1 foot of snow to parts of the Northeast.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Feb 13, 7:12 AM
Over 1,000 flights canceled
More than 1,000 flights have been canceled Tuesday, with airports in New York City and Boston hit the hardest.
Feb 13, 5:52 AM
50 million Americans on alert for heavy snow
Some 50 million Americans are on alert for heavy snow in the northeastern United States on Tuesday, as a storm is forecast to hit the region in the morning hours before exiting by the afternoon.
It’s the first time in two years that the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for New York City.
Rain began changing to snow early Tuesday and much of New York City was already under snow by 5 a.m. ET. The freezing line hadn’t quite made it to Philadelphia at that time but was expected to soon.
Since this is a wet snow falling into temperatures that are generally at or above freezing, the initial accumulation on the ground will melt before it starts to stick.
Snowfall rates are expected to be moderate, from 1 to 2 inches per hour, with heavier bands mixed in at times.
Winds are forecast to gust 20 to 40 miles per hour, blowing the snow and reducing visibility. However, due to the wet nature of the snow, blizzard-like conditions were generally not expected and should only be short-lived if they occur at all.
Coastal flooding was also expected to be an issue from Washington, D.C., to Delaware to New Jersey and Long Island and then from Cape Cod to Boston and Portland.
Feb 13, 4:00 AM
New York City, Boston close schools
New York City’s public schools, the largest system in the country, will be closed Tuesday, with classes moving to remote learning, Mayor Eric Adams announced.
This marks the first time in two years that New York City has been under a winter storm watch.
Boston Public Schools will also be closed Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — The past of Genesse Ivonne Moreno, the suspected Lakewood Church shooter, includes a turbulent marriage, a contentious divorce, allegations of child and spousal abuse, a checkered criminal record and a well-documented history of mental health issues, according to an ABC News review of documents and records.
Moreno is accused of entering the Houston megachurch with her 7-year-old son before opening fire as hundreds of people were taking their pews before a Sunday afternoon service, according to police.
Moreno, 36, has used “multiple aliases,” including “Jeffrey Escalante,” Christopher Hassig, heading the investigation for the Houston Police Department, told reporters Monday. Although it appears she has gone by “both male and female names” in the past, investigators’ interviews and documents connected to her life so far show Moreno “has been identified this entire time as female,” Hassig said.
A turbulent marriage flecked by abuse, mental health issues
Moreno was previously married to a man named Enrique Carranza III. It ended in a contentious divorce and bitter custody battle; their divorce was finalized in 2022.
Carranza, in court papers, described a turbulent relationship and separation from a severely “abusive” relationship on Moreno’s part. In an affidavit he filed in 2020 related to divorce and custody proceedings, he described Moreno’s mental health issues and violence towards him and their son (in a later filing, Moreno herself pushed back, saying it was her husband who had “physically assaulted” her.)
They first met in 2015 while working at the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston, according to Carranza’s affidavit — a “family-friendly American-Italian restaurant,” according to the restaurant’s website.
“As soon as we married, my wife became abusive,” Carranza said in his affidavit, adding she was “a diagnosed schizophrenic, so daily it was a new battle or fight in her realm” and that he let her put him “through hell to appease her delusional thought pattern.”
Carranza described being physically battered by his wife, whom he referred to as “Jeffrey.” He said she would “hit me with keys” and “cans of beans.” He said she “ripped a layer of my eye out once” because of impatience with the “interview process” for his job prospect and that she “also stalked me, getting me fired from jobs.”
During a three-week Christmastime visit in 2019 with his estranged wife and their son, Carranza said Moreno “called the cops on me twice and both times she had a gun and my son in her hand,” according to his affidavit.
“She is a diagnosed schizophrenic and [Child Protective Services] has told her that she cannot have a gun,” he said. “I am afraid of her having my address. She has guns and she brags about it while having my son in the car.”
“I strongly believe because of my wife’s schizophrenia, she does not have the capacity to discern reality from fiction,” Carranza’s affidavit said, adding “she is irrational and unstable” and “grabs the baby by his arm to pull him where she is to where his shoulder is out of socket.”
He described Moreno as willfully negligent towards their son: refusing to take him to the doctor and confining him to “one area.” He also said she “abuses her meds” and lets their son “stay up all times of the night.”
An affidavit from their child’s paternal grandmother, Walli Carranza, submitted during the couple’s separation fight echoes concerns over “complaints of child abuse and neglect, as well as reckless endangerment.”
In January 2020, Moreno “pulled an unlocked and loaded gun from underneath a seat in the car and pointed it at the head” of Carranza, “only hours after a first unlocked and loaded handgun was found” by their then-3-year-old son “in his own diaper bag,” according to the ex-mother-in-law’s affidavit.
When Carranza attempted to unlock his son from the car seat and remove him from the situation “as planned” with local authorities, Moreno “drove off” with the back door still “open” and their son not in his car seat, the affidavit said. Moreno “was stopped by Texas State Patrol after eluding them on back roads and then refusing to heed lights and sirens. Thus she had placed Samuel in imminent danger.”
The mother-in-law’s affidavit also suggests that Moreno should not have been able to own a gun, claiming that under an alias, Moreno had been under involuntary psychiatric commitment at least four times. She also claimed Moreno “filed a fraudulent birth certificate” for the child and “refused” to correct it and told hospital staff that the father [Carranza] was “dead” and, alternatively, that he was “homeless” and unknown.
Her son “has been reticent to file the criminal charges against his wife; now his former wife because, as she is not a US citizen,” the mother-in-law’s affidavit said, and “as she already has had criminal convictions, she would likely be deported if convicted of the 3rd degree felony that stems from filing a fraudulent birth certificate. He told [Houston Police] detectives this is not what he wants for the woman he loved and married and the mother of his child. He wants her to live, he told police, where she can get quality mental healthcare. He doesn’t hate her; he hates her mental illness and her refusal to treat it.”
The mother-in-law’s affidavit elaborates on the abuse allegedly inflicted by Moreno on her infant son.
The child “was drug exposed by his mother’s intentional use of illegal substances and legal” and “illegal substances were found in [the son’s] blood and urine at birth. His mother refused to allow a toxicology screen on her own blood and urine before birth; further jeopardizing her son.” The affidavit goes on to say Moreno kept her son “in diapers,” even at four years old, saying “‘its too messy to have to toilet train him. This is easier,'” dresses him only “in baby clothes” and “she dresses him in [girls’] clothes.” The affidavit also alleges that in December 2019, on a Christmas visit, Carranza caught Moreno putting “what appeared to be adult cold medicine” into their son’s feeding tube, saying, “‘this is the only way I can get him to sleep.'”
A day after Sunday’s shooting at Lakewood Church in Houston, Moreno’s former mother-in-law posted a lengthy statement on Facebook asking “that this be a wake-up call.”
“[M]y daughter-in-law when she was taking medication for schizophrenia was a very sweet and loving woman,” Walli Carranza wrote in the Facebook post on Monday. “But mental illness is real illness and when family members seek emergency protections they’re not doing so for their own sake but for the sake of the person who is ill….. And to protect her child and society.”
In a Dec. 2021 affidavit filed by Moreno under the name “Jeffrey Moreno-Carranza,” she told a different story, alleging that she has “personal knowledge” that her estranged husband was “a convicted sex offender” and had “multiple” DWI charges. She also alleged that during the marriage “he physically assaulted me on numerous occasions that made me fear for my safety and the safety of my son.” Carranza was found guilty by a Florida jury of Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Requirements in March 2023, after having been previously convicted of Attempted Sexual Assault on a Child in Colorado, according to the State Attorney for Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit and Texas DPS records.
“I have always been the primary caregiver for my son,” Moreno said in her 2021 affidavit, and that her husband “has never cared” for him “by himself and furthermore, he is not capable of caring for a child with special needs.”
Suspected shooter’s criminal history
Moreno was put under an emergency detention order in 2016 by Houston police officers and is believed to have a “mental health history that is documented, through us and through interviews with family members,” Hassig said at Monday’s briefing.
Moreno had a string of arrests in Texas over the last two decades.
According to ABC affiliate KTRK-TV, Moreno’s criminal history dates back to 2005, with the latest case coming during the summer of 2022.
Among her charges are an August 2009 assault, for which she was sentenced to 180 days in Harris County Jail for kicking a detention officer; a May 2010 charge for forgery, for which she was sentenced to two days in Harris County Jail for trying to use a counterfeit $100 bill; a November 2010 charge for theft, for which she was sentenced to 30 days in Harris County Jail for stealing hats and makeup; a December 2010 charge for evading arrest, for which she was sentenced to 75 days in Harris County Jail; and a June 2022 charge for unlawful carrying of a weapon, which is still an active case.
The hunt for a motive
Authorities are now poring over all possible evidence to understand Moreno’s motive and intent — from raiding a Montgomery County home under her name and a “dark in color sedan” that is registered to her and parked at the home to forensic analyses of her digital devices, and data and images stored on them, according to a police search warrant affidavit.
The warrant includes approval for police to search for any “ammunition, firearms, explosives, materials used to make explosives, cell phones, computers, and any evidence tending to connect Moreno with the commission of the offense of aggravated assault, possession of prohibited weapons, and/or hoax bomb” that might be found.
Authorities are also investigating a YouTube page called “Genesse Moreno Investor,” according to a source briefed on the probe. That page portrays Moreno as involved in real estate investments, posting one video with the description, “We Buy Commercial Residential Multifamily Properties.”
Police said Monday the investigation is still “very new” and ongoing, and they’re urgently pushing to understand why this person chose to open fire at the megachurch Sunday. That process will “take time,” officials said.
“We’re in the infancy stages of this. I completely understand. We want to know the motive. How she got the weapon. Why she did this. We’re not there yet,” Doug Williams, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI’s Houston field office, said.
But even in these first 24 hours, authorities have already recovered some “anti-Semitic writings” which they believe might have contributed to Moreno’s actions, noting the contentious relationship with her ex-husband and his family.
“We do believe that there was a familial dispute that has taken place between her ex-husband and her ex-husband’s family,” HPD’s Hassig said. “And some of those individuals are of, are Jewish. So we believe that that … might possibly be where all of this stems from.”
“There was a sticker on the buttstock of the rifle” that Moreno used at Lakewood, Hassig said. That sticker “simply stated ‘Palestine.'”
Moreno’s ex-mother-in-law, Walli Carranza, who identifies herself as a rabbi, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that despite Morreno’s apparent antisemitic utterances, “this has nothing to do with Judaism or Islam.” Carranza pointed, instead, to Moreno’s untreated mental illness and a lack of “strong red flag laws that would have prevented her from having a gun.”
(NEW YORK) — A major winter snowstorm is hitting the northeastern United States on Tuesday and could wreak havoc on roadways from New York City to Boston.
The fast-moving storm is expected to last only from Tuesday morning to Tuesday afternoon, but it could bring up to 1 foot of snow to parts of the Northeast.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Feb 13, 5:52 AM
50 million Americans on alert for heavy snow
Some 50 million Americans are on alert for heavy snow in the northeastern United States on Tuesday, as a storm is forecast to hit the region in the morning hours before exiting by the afternoon.
It’s the first time in two years that the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for New York City.
Rain began changing to snow early Tuesday and much of New York City was already under snow by 5 a.m. ET. The freezing line hadn’t quite made it to Philadelphia at that time but was expected to soon.
Since this is a wet snow falling into temperatures that are generally at or above freezing, the initial accumulation on the ground will melt before it starts to stick.
Snowfall rates are expected to be moderate, from 1 to 2 inches per hour, with heavier bands mixed in at times.
Winds are forecast to gust 20 to 40 miles per hour, blowing the snow and reducing visibility. However, due to the wet nature of the snow, blizzard-like conditions were generally not expected and should only be short-lived if they occur at all.
Coastal flooding was also expected to be an issue from Washington, D.C., to Delaware to New Jersey and Long Island and then from Cape Cod to Boston and Portland.
Feb 13, 4:00 AM
New York City, Boston close schools
New York City’s public schools, the largest system in the country, will be closed Tuesday, with classes moving to remote learning, Mayor Eric Adams announced.
This marks the first time in two years that New York City has been under a winter storm watch.
Boston Public Schools will also be closed Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — One person was killed and five others wounded in a shooting at a subway station in the Bronx Monday evening, police said.
Around 4:30 p.m. ET, officers responded to 911 calls of a shooting at the Mount Eden Avenue station and found six people shot, New York City Police Department Chief of Transit Michael M. Kemper told reporters at a media briefing Monday night.
The victims, four men and two women, whose ages ranged from 14 to 71, were all taken to local hospitals. One of the men, a 34-year-old, died at St. Barnabas Hospital, Kember said.
The injuries to the other victims were not life-threatening, according to the police.
Kember said the shooting was not random and started inside a No. 4 train when two groups got into a dispute.
As the train pulled into the station, one person took out a gun and opened fire, according to Kemper.
“This is unacceptable, and when detectives make an arrest … there must be swift, immediate, strong consequences,” Kemper said.
Some of the people shot were part of that initial dispute while others were not, Kemper said. No further information was made available about the victims at the briefing.
A suspect has not been identified, officials said.
The NYPD is going through surveillance footage and asking anyone who has information to call Crimestoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
(NEW YORK) — Inflation data to be released on Tuesday will show whether price increases resumed a monthslong slowdown in January.
The report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics follows a slight acceleration of price increases in December. That jump in inflation complicated the Federal Reserve’s plans to deescalate its inflation fight with a series of interest rate cuts this year.
Fewer than two weeks ago, the central bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged, opting to observe further economic performance before reversing a near-historic series of rate increases that began last year.
Economists expect Tuesday’s data to show prices have increased 2.9% over the year ending in January, which would mark a significant slowdown from the annual pace of 3.4% recorded over the previous month.
Core inflation — a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices — is expected to have increased 3.7% over the year ending in January, which would also amount to a cooldown from the prior month.
Inflation has fallen dramatically from a peak last year, but it remains more than a percentage point above the Fed’s target of 2%.
The U.S. economy has largely defied the central bank’s efforts to slow the economy by raising borrowing costs for households and businesses.
The economy far exceeded expectations by adding 353,000 jobs last month while holding the unemployment rate steady at 3.7%, a historically low figure, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month.
Gross domestic product performed much better than expected at the end of last year, a report this month showed, while consumer sentiment soared in January.
The blockbuster performance, however, could pose a challenge for the inflation fight taken up by policymakers at the Federal Reserve.
The Fed risks a rebound of inflation if it cuts interest rates too quickly, since stronger consumer demand could lead to an acceleration of price increases.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., late last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell celebrated the steady decline of inflation over recent months and welcomed the robust hiring occurring alongside it. However, he cautioned about the risks posed by an economy that runs too hot.
“We’re not looking for a weaker labor market,” Powell said. “We’re looking for inflation to continue to come down, as it has been coming down for the last six months.”
“We’re not declaring victory at this point,” he later added. “We think we have a ways to go.”
(NEW YORK) — Show a little love to the planet this Valentine’s Day by celebrating in more sustainable ways.
The holiday is actually quite carbon-intensive due to consumer behavior in the U.S., research shows. For Valentine’s Day, U.S. citizens buy about 36 million heart-shaped boxes, 180 million cards, 198 million roses, 881,000 bottles of sparkling wine and 58 million pounds of chocolate, according to Waste 360, an international waste management and strategy company.
Americans are projected to spend nearly $26 billion on Valentine’s Day this year, the National Retail Federation announced in January.
North America did not embrace Feb. 14 as a holiday en masse until Hallmark began specializing in Valentine’s Day cards in 1910, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Consumers can reduce their carbon footprint by making more eco-friendly choices for their Valentine’s Day revelry.
Here’s how to celebrate Valentine’s Day more sustainably, according to experts:
Buy a houseplant from a local nursery instead of flowers
Unlike a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers, a houseplant can last for years and be enjoyed for many holidays to come.
Purchasing a houseplant from a local nursery can support a local business and avoid additional shipping emissions associated with imported flowers and plants, Jodie Bross, owner of Glenwild Garden Center in Bloomingdale, New Jersey, told ABC News.
More than a billion flowers are imported into the U.S. — mostly from Ecuador and Colombia — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
According to the National Retail Federation, 39% of consumers will buy flowers for the holiday. However, most of them will end up in landfills after the holiday, contributing to the release of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases that is responsible for around 30% of the global temperature increase since the Industrial Revolution, scientists say.
Organic materials, including food waste, are responsible for the majority of fugitive methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition, chemical pollution from the cut-flower industry, which uses agrochemical extensively for the short-cycle production, has negative effects on the air, soil and water supply, according to the World Resources Institute. The amount of water used in production is also a concern, the WRI said.
“The sourcing for them can be a little bit problematic,” Bross said. “A lot of them come from South America, so there’s a lot of travel involved.”
Choose experiences over gifts
Valentine’s Day gifts can also be tickets to a Broadway show or concert.
In 2023, an estimated 41% of Americans gave experiences for Valentine’s Day instead of a physical gift, according to the National Retail Federation.
Make your own stuffed heart or toy with old fabrics or clothes you already have. Another idea could be to repurpose wine bottles or candles to create a new soy candle as a gift.
Baking goods or purchasing them from a local bakery also helps to curb emissions from shipping.
Consider celebrating with a green heart instead
While Valentine’s Day is often flooded with the colors red and pink, one nonprofit climate organization is incorporating green into the mix.
U.K.-based The Climate Coalition has embarked on the Show the Love campaign, which calls for urgent and decisive action on climate change, Helen Meech, the organization’s executive director, told ABC News.
“Climate can feel quite intangible,” Meech said. “It can feel quite sort of over there. So it’s about taking it back to people’s everyday lives and the things that they love.”
On Valentine’s Day, communities across the U.K. display green hearts in windows and residents send green hearts to local representatives to encourage environmental action.
“We’ve had kind of people from every corner of the U.K. who’ve been using the symbolism of a green heart to engage with their members of Parliament to put forward the case for action, for climate change, and to protect what we love from its in impacts,” Meech said. “And we found that … each green heart inspires another.”
(NEW YORK) — A suspect has been arrested in a violet mugging that left a 91-year-old man with multiple injuries, the New York Police Department confirmed on Monday.
Christian Torres, 45, was arrested in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City Sunday at approximately 10:15 a.m. and charged with attempted robbery, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
The attack took place in the Upper East Side neighborhood on Feb. 1 when 91-year-old Hyman Silverglad was walking on East 86th Street between First and Second Avenues around 10:30 a.m. local time, police said.
Police confirmed the suspect, believed to be Torres, pushed Silverglad to the ground and punched him while attempting to remove his wallet.
After the attack, Silverglad was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital Medical Center with multiple injuries. Torres allegedly fled the scene on foot.
In an interview with WABC in New York last week, Silverglad, and his son, James, recounted the brutal assault.
Silverglad said he was walking home from the grocery store when the assailant violently knocked him to the ground, punched him and tried to steal his wallet.
The retired attorney from Coney Island said he held onto his wallet until the suspect fled the scene.
Hyman Silverglad told WABC the fractures he sustained in the attack have left him “in agony.”
“[The suspect] threw me to the ground and I have suffered at least six fractures, very bad fractures,” he said. “I cannot walk, I’m in never-ending constant pain.”
Despite the injuries sustained, the 91-year-old maintained, “I had to fight for my life. Who wouldn’t put up a good fight?”
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case will hear arguments Monday on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade will have to testify during a hearing Thursday scheduled to examine allegations of misconduct against the two of them.
Wills and Wade, along with a number of employees in the DA’s office, have been subpoenaed to testify Thursday by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, who last month filed a motion seeking to dismiss the election charges against him and disqualify Willis on the grounds that she allegedly engaged in a “personal, romantic relationship” with Wade, one of her top prosecutors in the election case, which allegedly resulted in financial gain for both of them.
A subsequent court filing from Willis admitted to the relationship but denied that there was any financial conflict of interest that would disqualify her from the case.
Roman then accused the DA of misrepresenting in that filing aspects of the relationship, including when it began.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee set a Feb. 15 hearing to hear evidence regarding the allegations of misconduct.
Willis’ office has asked the judge to quash the subpoenas to her, Wade, the DA’s office employees, and Wade’s business associate, calling the effort “harassment and disruption.” She has also asked the judge to cancel the upcoming evidentiary hearing altogether.
Willis argued there is “no factual basis” that “could reasonably justify requiring” her and a number of her employees to become witnesses in the case, and accused Roman of “an attempt to conduct discovery in a (rather belated) effort to support reckless accusations.”
“Harassment and disruption of this type should not be entertained,” the filing says.
Roman, however, says a business associate of Wade’s will “refute” claims made in Willis’s filing, and is ready to testify on Thursday. That individual, Terrance Bradley, has been subpoenaed by Roman. The DA’s office has asked the judge to quash that subpoena as well.
Wade also filed a motion seeking to quash a subpoena for his bank records, and a former DA’s office employee is also seeking to quash a subpoena issued to her.
Trump has joined in on the effort to disqualify Willis and dismiss his charges, accusing the DA of violating her office’s ethics obligations with statements she made at a church in the wake of the allegations.
Trump, Roman, and 17 others pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Four defendants in the case subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
