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(NEW YORK) — An orca started a fad in the summer of 1987 when it killed a salmon and returned to the surface with the dead fish draped on top of its head.

For a few pods of killer whales in the Puget Sound area of Washington state, wearing these “dead salmon hats” was “the cool thing to do for that entire summer,” Monika Wieland-Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, told ABC News. It was also one of the first examples of this type of trend-like behavior that humans witnessed spreading among killer whales.

More than three decades later, experts say that a spate of orca encounters with boats near the Iberian Peninsula in recent years could be another one of these orca social trends. What event may have triggered this behavior remains up for debate – one theory by some observers posits that a single orca was previously traumatized in an incident involving a boat, which triggered aggressive behavior that other killer whales have since learned to imitate.

At least 15 human-orca incidents were recorded in 2020, the year in which the encounters are believed to have begun, according to a study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Many of them included orcas biting or striking the rudders of sailboats. Three boats have sunk and dozens more have been damaged, according to tracking data from the Cruising Association. There have been no fatalities.

The encounters have spawned a blitz of alarming press and internet memes about a budding uprising of orcas supposedly enacting their revenge on humans. Meanwhile, some experts are calling for more nuance in how the public views these massive marine predators.

“There’s something almost Robin Hood-like about thinking that we’ve pushed nature far enough that they’re finally going to fight back. And people really seem to be getting behind that. There just isn’t evidence that that’s what’s happening,” Wieland-Shields said.

Wieland-Shields said she’s not so sure the orcas are aiming to disable the boats, but they may be intrigued by the moving rudder mechanisms and trying to be playful with the push and pull as the captain tries to maintain steering control.

“We’ve done a lot of things to orcas around the world that could have easily inspired that type of revenge response. And never have we triggered that aggression from them toward humans,” she said.

Dr. Lori Marino, a biopsychologist and expert on orca behavior, believes that humans often characterize orcas and other animals as one-dimensional beings when, in reality, they are far more complex.

“We think because we’re human, we’re the most intelligent, we’re the most complex, we’re the most sophisticated, and other animals are more like cartoon versions of themselves. But no, they are full beings with evolutionary histories, brains some of them bigger than ours and more complex,” Marino told ABC News.

“Quite frankly, if they really wanted to take revenge, they would. You know, let’s not fine coat it. If these orcas wanted to kill humans on those boats, they would. Period,” Marino said.

Wieland-Shields also pushes back against this black-and-white view.

“Through the era of Free Willy and Shamu, orcas kind of morphed from killer whales into sea pandas. And now the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, where they’re becoming the killer whales again,” Wieland-Shields said.

But the truth lies “somewhere in between,” Wieland-Shields said.

“This is one of the ocean’s top predators. They deserve our respect, they deserve their space, but they aren’t out to get humans, you know. We can coexist with them, we can observe them, and have awe at what they’re doing, how they’re behaving, without being afraid that our lives are at risk,” Wieland-Shields said.

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(FLORIDA) — Susan Lorincz, the woman charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting her neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens on June 2 in Ocala, Florida, pleaded not guilty on Monday, her attorney Amanda Sizemore confirmed to ABC News.

Lorincz waived her right to an arraignment, which was scheduled for Tuesday, according to ABC affiliate in Ocala, Florida WCJB.

Lorincz, who is white, was arrested on June 6 and charged with first-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison if she is convicted, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. She was also charged with culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault.

According to a June 6 statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lorincz shot Owens, a Black mother of four, through a door after Owens went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near Lorincz’s home.

Lorincz was held on $150,000 bond and remains in custody. Court records show Lorcinz’s pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2, while jury selection in her case is expected to begin on Nov. 13.

Sizemore declined to comment on the charges that her client is facing.

Body camera footage released on July 3 from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office showed seven incidents between Feb. 25, 2022 and April 25 2023 in which Lorincz called sheriff’s deputies to complain about neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, playing near her home.

According to the June 6 statement released by the sheriff’s office, Lorincz claimed she was acting in “self-defense” during her interview, but through the investigation “detectives were able to establish that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law.”

Owens’ family called on prosecutors to upgrade the charges against Lorincz from manslaughter to second-degree murder during a virtual press conference on June 27.

Florida State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson said on June 26 there was insufficient evidence to prove such a charge in court.

“As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder,” Gladson said.

ABC News reached out to attorneys representing the Owens family for further comment.

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(NEWARK, N.J.) — The massive fire aboard a cargo ship filled with cars that took the lives of two Newark firefighters was put out after nearly a week of burning, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday morning.

Investigators said they will now begin investigating the cause of the blaze on the Italian freighter Grande Costa D’Avorio. The vessel will then be broken down for scrap.

“The salvage process could easily be one to two months,” Coast Guard Capt. Zeita Merchant said during a news conference.

The most recent tests of the air and water around the ship’s berth indicated they were safe, said Kevin Perry of Gallagher Marine Systems, the company that was hired by the ship’s owner, Grimaldi Group, to extinguish the fire and conduct salvage operations.

Firefighters were dispatched to the Port Newark Container Terminal on June 5 at around 9:30 p.m. ET after receiving a report about multiple vehicles on fire aboard the ship.

The freighter was carrying used cars destined for Africa with a stop in Providence, Rhode Island, in between, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“The decks of the ship is essentially a parking garage,” Port Director Beth Rooney said. “What we had burning were components and parts of cars.”

Firefighters managed to extinguish the main body of the blaze but the flames had extended to multiple levels of the vessel.

At 10:25 p.m. ET the firefighters called a “Mayday” after two firefighters were trapped inside the ship followed by a second “Mayday” call 15 minutes later, city officials said.

Two Newark firefighters, Augusta Acabou, 45, and Wayne Brooks, 49, were pulled out and later died at the hospital.

Acabou served in the Newark Fire Division for 9 1/2 years and was assigned to Engine 16, Tour 1, according to city officials. Brooks was a veteran of the fire department for 16 1/2 years and was assigned to Ladder 4, Tour 1.

The last time a Newark firefighter was killed on the job was in 2007.

Five other firefighters were injured in the blaze, officials said.

One of the issues encountered by the firefighters was that their two-and-a-half-inch fire hose lines weren’t compatible with the boat’s one-inch connections, a source close to the investigation told ABC News on Thursday.

Instead, the firefighters were forced to use the fire hoses on the ship, which output less water and pressure than they were used to, the source said.

The New Jersey firefighters also weren’t trained to handle blazes that take place on cargo boats, the source said.

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(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Vermont, where torrential rainfall triggered “historic and catastrophic” flooding, Gov. Phil Scott said.

Some areas recorded 9 inches of rain as small creeks turned into raging rivers in the worst flooding to hit Vermont since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

More than 100 people have been rescued across Vermont so far, officials said Tuesday morning.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, Scott said.

More rescuers are heading to the impacted areas, including teams from Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Carolina, for what officials called a dayslong or weekslong operation. Helicopters from the Vermont and New Hampshire National Guards are also helping with evacuations, officials said.

The threat is ongoing, the governor warned Tuesday, because floodwaters are continuing to rise and more rain is headed to the state to soak the already saturated grounds.

In Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, the Winooski River crested at 21.02 feet, the highest level since 1927.

Montpelier extended its downtown travel ban until 3 p.m. ET Tuesday after the water receded more slowly than initially projected.

“We know that business owners will be anxious to check out their stores but we urge patience,” Montpelier City Manager William Fraser said Monday night.

Scott said he even had to hike to the emergency response center Tuesday morning because the roads around his house “were completely impassable.”

The emergency in Vermont came as heavy rainfall drenched the Northeast from upstate New York to western Maine.

The extreme weather began on Sunday, affecting much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, prompting flash flood alerts in parts of New York. One person was killed in the floodwaters in upstate New York.

The system pushed north on Monday, with the heaviest rainfall hitting Vermont.

The Northeast is expected to get a break from the downpours on Tuesday and Wednesday, but more heavy rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the region Thursday, including in New York and Vermont. Another 2 to 4 inches of rainfall is possible.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Peter Charalambous, Alexandra Faul, Matt Foster, Max Golembo and Dan Peck contributed to this report.

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(INDIANAPOLIS) — An Indiana sheriff’s office is mourning the loss of a veteran deputy who was attacked and killed by an inmate during an escape attempt, authorities said.

Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm, 61, was transporting an inmate back to jail after a medical appointment on Monday when the inmate assaulted him at the entry point to Indianapolis’ Adult Detention Center, according to the Indianapolis police.

The inmate, 34-year-old Orlando Mitchell, allegedly stole a transport van, drove alone out of the Criminal Justice Center Complex and then crashed, police said.

Mitchell was taken into custody at the scene of the crash and hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

How Durm was attacked was not immediately released, but police called it “an intentional act of homicide.”

Durm, a 38-year veteran of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, is survived by his wife, four children and his parents, police said.

Durm’s wife has also worked at the sheriff’s department for decades, Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal told reporters.

“She knows it’s dangerous,” the sheriff said, “but still didn’t expect, to think that would happen to her husband. So they’re shocked.”

Durm has an extended family in law enforcement, including a son who is currently at the detention deputy academy, the sheriff said.

“I’m sure he went there today to follow in his father’s footsteps,” Forestal said. “He started today thinking he had a new career, and some other inmate ended his father’s life.”

Mitchell will be arrested for murder once he is released from the hospital, police said.

Mitchell was in custody on murder charges for allegedly shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend outside an Indianapolis day care last year, according to Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV.

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(NEW YORK) — Law enforcement line-of-duty deaths decreased by 66% halfway through 2023, according to a report released by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund on Tuesday.

Every year the NLEMF releases two reports — one counting the midyear line of duty death statistics and one recapping the statistics for the entire year.

There have been 52 federal, state and local law enforcement officers who’ve died in the line of duty between Jan. 1 and June 30, according to NLEMF.

“The 52 line-of-duty deaths are down across all categories, but the overall decrease is largely a result of dramatic reductions in the reports of COVID-19 related deaths,” the report said.

COVID-19-related deaths skyrocketed numbers over the past few years.

In all categories, traffic-related deaths, felonious deaths and accidental deaths are all down.

In particular, traffic-related deaths were down significantly from last year.

“These 11 crash-related fatalities are a decrease of 63% compared to the 30 crash-related deaths during the same period last year,” the report said.

There were 25 officers killed by gunfire — a 24% decrease from a year ago when 33 officers were killed by firearms.

Handguns were the leading cause of officer deaths, the report said.

One of the officers killed with a handgun was Sgt. David Christopher Fitzgerald. He was shot while patrolling for a suspicious person on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Five deaths occurred in April, May and June; four in February, and three in January and March.

According to the report, officers who lost their lives had between three months of service and 34 years. The youngest officer killed was 23, and the oldest was in their early 70s.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Vermont, where torrential rainfall has triggered life-threatening flash floods.

The president’s action frees up federal resources to supplement the state and local response efforts as well as authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts across Vermont.

Many rivers in the Green Mountain State were “expected to crest overnight at flood levels,” according to a joint press release from the Vermont Department of Public Safety and the Vermont Emergency Management. Swift water rescue teams had already performed more than 50 rescues, primarily in the towns of Londonderry, Weston, Bridgewater, Andover, Ludlow and Middlesex, the press release stated.

“Vermonters should be vigilant and aware of conditions as floodwaters rise,” the agencies warned in the press release on Monday night. “If flooding approaches your home evacuate to higher ground sooner rather than later, your route could be compromised by floodwaters and leave you stranded.”

Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, has issued an emergency health order closing downtown until at least 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday as the Winooski River, which runs through the city, recedes. Water levels were expected to drop between 8 a.m. and noon ET, according to Montpelier city manager William Fraser.

“This will allow officials to assess safety risks and begin clean up efforts,” Fraser said in a statement via social media on Monday night. “We know that business owners will be anxious to check out their stores but we urge patience.”

The Winooski River has risen to its second-highest level on record, behind only the historic flood of 1927.

In another statement early Tuesday, Fraser warned that the Wrightsville Dam, located at the intersection of the municipal borders of the towns of Montpelier, Middlesex and East Montpelier, “only has 6 feet of storage capacity left,” which he said “could be a dangerous situation.”

“If water exceeds capacity, the first spillway will release water into the North Branch River,” Fraser added. “This has never happened since the dam was built so there is no precedent for potential damage. There would be a large amount of water coming into Montpelier which would drastically add to the existing flood damage. This will be particularly bad along the North Branch River corridor and into the downtown. Unfortunately, there are very few evacuation options remaining. People in at risk areas may wish to go to upper floors in their houses.”

The emergency in Vermont came as heavy rainfall drenches the northeastern United States, with flooding expected in the New England area from upstate New York to western Maine. The extreme weather began on Sunday, affecting much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, prompting flash flood alerts in parts of New York. The system pushed north on Monday, with the heaviest rainfall and reports of significant flash flooding occurring in Vermont.

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(NEW YORK) — Journalist Evan Gershkovich has spent more than three months in Russian detention, but his parents say they remain confident the U.S. government will do all it can to bring their son home.

“President [Joe] Biden spoke to us and gave us a promise to do whatever it takes,” Ella Milman, Gershkovich’s mother, told ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos as she sat alongside her husband, Mikhail Gershkovich, in their first broadcast interview since their son’s imprisonment.

Milman said Biden spoke to them “as a parent” about their son, a Wall Street Journal reporter based in Moscow, who’s being held on espionage charges — charges he, his outlet and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

“[H]e told us he understands our pain,” she said.

Just days after Evan Gershkovich’s arrest on March 29, Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally declared the reporter “wrongfully detained” by Russia.

When Evan’s parents met with Blinken, they said he showed them a card bearing the names of all the wrongfully detained Americans worldwide. Gershkovich’s name was on the list, too.

“And he promised to us he’s not going to rest until all the names are crossed out from his card,” Milman continued.

“Mr. Blinken [is] working very hard to cross Evan’s name out on that card,” she added.

On Friday — Evan Gershkovich’s 100th day in a Russian prison — Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, confirmed U.S. officials have been in contact with their Russian counterparts to discuss Evan’s release.

“What the Kremlin said earlier this week is correct,” Sullivan said during a White House press briefing on Friday during which he addressed a report about talks of a potential prisoner swap. “There have been discussions. But those discussions have not produced a clear pathway to a resolution, and so I cannot stand here today and tell you that we have a clear answer to how we are going to get Evan home.”

Evan Gershkovich was in a restaurant in Yekaterinburg, about 1,000 miles from Moscow, when Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested him earlier this year.

The WSJ and friends, as well as people Gershkovich interviewed in Yekaterinburg, have said the journalist was working on a story about Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary military organization Wagner Group, who just last month led a short-lived rebellion against the Russian government after leaving the front lines of Ukraine when he was arrested.

Gershkovich has pleaded not guilty to espionage charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted in a case that is marked “top secret.”

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(OKLAHOMA CITY) — Two boys have died after they were swept away by waters from an open dam in Oklahoma City, officials say.

The incident occurred late in the afternoon on Monday when officials from the Oklahoma City Fire Department were needed for a water rescue emergency near the backside of Lake Overholser Dam, a large reservoir located within the city limits in the northwest Oklahoma City.

“With the water gates open, the water currents were extremely strong,” said the Oklahoma City Fire Department on social media detailing their rescue efforts. “Four boys were fishing in the area and entered the water. The strong water currents pulled two boys under water while the other two safely made it to a concrete ledge.”

Firefighters confirm that they were able to rescue the two boys from the ledge before beginning their search for the other two missing victims who were pulled under in the heavy currents.

A short time later, firefighters were able to locate one of the boys but said he did not survive. The Oklahoma City Fire Department and Oklahoma City Police Department continued searching for the other missing boy for several hours before confirming just before 1 a.m. on Tuesday that they had found him and he did not survive either.

According to ABC News’ Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV, the boys who died were aged 10 and 11 years old.

The identity of the victims have not yet been released and the investigation is currently ongoing.

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(NEW YORK) — The husband of a woman who was found dead by the side of a road last month has been arrested for the alleged hit-and-run murder of his wife, police say.

The body of Angela Marie McClelland, a 49-year-old woman from Fort Ripley, Minnesota — approximately 110 miles northwest of Minneapolis — was found in the early hours of Sunday, June 25, near the intersection of Legend Road and Killian Road in Fort Ripley after having “died as a result of being struck by a vehicle,” according to the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s investigators along with the State Patrol spent the past two weeks following up on leads before finally arresting her husband, 47-year-old Tony James McClelland, for her alleged vehicular homicide.

“On July 10, 2023, at 8:30pm Crow Wing County Deputies arrested the husband 47 year old Tony James McClelland of Fort Ripley for the woman found deceased along the roadway in Fort Ripley Township near the intersection of Legend Rd and Killian Rd,” said the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Department announcing the break in the case. “The death occurred about two weeks ago and investigators have been working on the case putting the pieces together to the fatal events leading up to the death of the victim, 49 year old Angela Marie McClelland of Fort Ripley.”

Police did not disclose a potential motive for the alleged murder but did say that both the victim and the suspect lived together at the time of Angela McClelland’s death.

“Investigators from Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, BCA and the State Patrol began developing leads and worked throughout the last two weeks following up on interviews and gathering pieces of evidence to bring this arrest today,” authorities said.

Following his arrest, Tony McClelland was transported to the Crow Wing County Jail where he was booked on second degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide charges.

Police said more information about their investigation will be released in the coming days and the investigation is currently ongoing.

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