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(WASHINGTON) — The new director of a Department of Justice office that financially supports police departments nationwide says that community engagement is what defines successful law enforcement. And he knows from experience.

Before being chosen to head the Community Oriented Policing Services within the DOJ, Hugh Clements was the chief of police in Providence, Rhode Island. With more than 34 years in policing, Clements told ABC News that his time as an officer and as a leader serves him well in understanding what agencies go through on a daily basis and what funding they need.

“The position is almost tailor-made for a police chief who’s done it in the field,” Clements said. He said he’s previously been the “beneficiary” of the “great programs” from COPS.

“I was one of the practitioners in the field doing the work in the community and having a great degree of success in making that community a safer place,” he said.

The main role of COPS is to dole out federal funds to police departments around the country for a variety of issues. The biggest pot of money is for hiring officers.

Clements said that 13,000 of the 18,000 police departments in the country have been given a grant from COPS for one issue or another, whether it be for staffing or a program to decrease violent crime.

Clements began his own leadership career in policing as a district commander with Providence police and worked his way up. When he started, he said the department was more traditional but as time went on, community policing became more of a focus.

“I never aspired to be the chief of police but I had a great passion for the community that I worked in and we became enmeshed in the community,” he said. In his view, there are many ways to define community policing — though it all ultimately boils down to what works for locals.

“For a police department to be effective in their community, for them to have better outcomes in their community, they have to be so connected to that community, they have to be engaged,” he said.

DOJ recently tasked COPS with looking into the Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department’s use of force and deescalation policies as well as a separate review of specialized units across the country, in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death after he was beaten by officers during a traffic stop in January.

Five officers from the now-disbanded “Scorpion Unit” in Memphis are charged with murder in Nichols’ death. They have pleaded not guilty.

Clements said that a review in general of specialized units asks whether or not the police department needs that group, what the accountability procedures are for those officers and how effective they are. A major part of review is also talking to subject-matter experts about the situation.

“We’ll be doing a larger look nationally at what type of oversight there should be, what type of accountability [there is] in allowing these units to be involved in your police work,” he said.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Two former teachers at Kanye West’s Donda Academy are suing the recording artist and entrepreneur and California private school, alleging they were wrongfully terminated after raising concerns about the institution’s practices.

According to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Cecilia Hailey started working at the Simi Valley school in November as a substitute teacher before becoming a full-time third grade teacher in January. Her daughter, Chekarey Byers, started working at the school in January as a fifth-grade teacher, the lawsuit stated.

Both were fired in March, according to the lawsuit, which alleges they were terminated after complaining about “unlawful and unsafe practices,” including the alleged lack of a proper disciplinary system, school nurse, janitorial staff and security precautions.

“No action was taken to remedy plaintiffs’ complaints regarding sanitation, health, safety or education standard pursuant to local and state law, which plaintiffs made throughout the entirety of their employment,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit, which includes West, who now goes by Ye, and Donda Academy among the defendants, also alleges that the women’s paychecks were “untimely or inaccurate.”

The two were terminated in early March, effective immediately, and were not provided a reason, according to the lawsuit.

“Plaintiffs are informed and believe that they were terminated in retaliation for their complaints about Defendants’ unlawful and unsafe educational practices,” the lawsuit stated.

The women, who are African American, also allege they were discriminated against based on their race after being called “aggressive” by a school leader, according to the lawsuit.

“Plaintiffs believe this type of comment facilitates stereotypes about African-American women as being confrontational simply for doing their job and voicing their legitimate concerns in order to provide a safe environment and proper education for their students,” the lawsuit states.

ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Donda Academy to an email seeking comment. It’s unclear whether Ye currently has a representative.

The lawsuit is seeking damages including unpaid wages, loss of earnings, deferred compensation and other employment benefits, as well as damages related to emotional distress.

Ye founded the private Christian school last year. The nonaccredited school, which serves students in pre-K through 12th grade, briefly appeared to be shutting down amid backlash over Ye’s antisemitic comments in the fall, though has remained open.

It is currently taking applications for the 2023-2024 school year, according to its website.

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(CHESTERLAND, Ohio) — Local officials in Ohio are commending the quick thinking of a high school student who they say potentially averted a school shooting.

After the 17-year-old student alerted a school resource officer on Monday morning about a bullet found in one of the school’s bathrooms, police were able to locate and arrest a student who had brought a 9mm handgun and three fully-loaded magazines into the school, school officials said.

“The fact that we were able to do so rests in large part on the actions of a student who did what he knew was right; he reported a suspicious finding to his school resource officer,” West Geauga Local Schools Superintendent Richard Markwardt said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Police charged 18-year-old Brandon Morrissette with attempted aggravated murder, inducing panic and illegal possession of a deadly weapon in a school, according to court records obtained by ABC affiliate WEWS in Cleveland.

Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said that Morrissette will be taken into custody and arraigned once he clears medical and psychological evaluations at a mental health facility, which could be as early as Friday.

It was not immediately known if Morrissette has an attorney.

Chester Township Police Chief Craig Young said that once authorities learned about the bullet, they sorted through nearly two dozen individuals captured on video entering the school’s bathroom, eventually narrowing it down to Morrissette who was arrested Monday morning.

Flaiz also credited the school’s resource officer for the successful response.

“This was handled, in my opinion, absolutely correctly and properly from beginning to end,” he said.

The school went into lockdown while the investigation took place, and students were later dismissed for the entire day due to an associated threat on social media, according to Markwardt. Officials defended the delay in waiting until the school’s third period to issue a lockdown, despite finding the bullet during the first period, calling any earlier lockdown based on the information available at the time “premature.”

“I am deeply grateful for the fact that no students and staff were injured or killed in this recent incident,” Markwardt said at the press conference.

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(SAN FRANCISCO) — Bob Lee, Cash App founder and executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, died after “apparent stab wounds,” the San Francisco Police Department said on Thursday.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Wednesday described the killing of Lee as “horrific.”

Police responded to a report of a stabbing early Tuesday, around 2:35 a.m., and found a 43-year-old man suffering from stab wounds, the San Francisco Police Department said on Thursday.

Police confirmed Lee’s identity in a statement late Wednesday and said the San Francisco Police Department Homicide Detail is investigating the incident.

“There is no place for this kind of violent crime against anyone in our city. I want to assure everyone that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and bring justice to Mr. Lee and his loved ones, just as we try to do on every homicide that occurs in our city,” said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott in a statement.

Officers called for medics, who transported the victim to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, the police report said, adding that the victim ultimately died from the injuries.

“We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” Jenkins said.

London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, said in a statement to ABC News that Lee’s death marks a “horrible tragedy.”

“My sympathies go out to his family and friends,” Breed said. “The police are actively investigating what happened and will share details as soon as they can.”

Lee served as the first chief technology officer at Square, a digital payment company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

“Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature,” Joshua Goldbard, the CEO of MobileCoin, told ABC News in a statement.

“He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real,” Goldbard added.

During the 2000s, Lee worked at Google, where he helped develop Android.

Cash App did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lee is survived by his wife, Krista, and their two children.

“Bob’s real resume is the hearts and minds he touched in his time on earth,” Goldbard said. “Bob’s legacy is the feeling that you can make a difference if you try, and of course his amazing children.”

ABC News’ Annie Pong and Alex Stone contributed to reporting.

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(NEW YORK) — A manhunt is underway in Georgia for a man convicted of murder who apparently left an Atlanta correctional facility while on parole.

The Georgia Department of Corrections issued an alert Wednesday for residents to be on the lookout for Charles Smith, who it said had “walked away” from the Atlanta Transitional Center.

“DO NOT APPROACH,” the agency warned.

Smith was convicted and given a maximum life sentence for a 1992 murder in Clayton County, according to online prison records, which list his current status as parole. He is a resident of the transitional center, officials said.

Authorities described Smith as standing 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing about 200 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing black pants and a black shirt.

The Georgia Department of Corrections also issued an alert for another escaped convict early Thursday.

The agency warned residents to be on the lookout for Johnson State Prison inmate Dshawn Garrison, who was sentenced to 25 years on a rape conviction, online prison records show.

Garrison escaped from Johnson State Prison in Wrightsville Wednesday evening and was last seen in Sparta, about 45 miles northwest of the facility, authorities said.

Washington County sheriff’s deputies pursued a vehicle matching the description of the one Garrison allegedly fled in until it crashed in Sparta, the sheriff’s office said. The occupants fled on foot, authorities said.

“At this time, many law enforcement agencies are in this area attempting to apprehend the inmate and his accomplices,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post while urging residents in the area to “use caution.”

Authorities described Garrison as standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 167 pounds with brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a state-issued inmate uniform.

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(RICHMOND, Texas) — A homeowner in Texas has threatened to sue Apple after he says a glitch in the “Find My iPhone” app made people think he’s stolen their iPhone and other products.

Scott Schuster took to Instagram on Sunday and claimed that people kept showing up to his Richmond, Texas, home, alleging that the app is pinging his home as the location of their devices.

“I have multiple videos of people very upset and accusing me of stealing their expensive devices,” he wrote.

He told ABC News Houston affiliate KTRK that people have shown up to his home, which he’s lived in since 2018, every few months for the last few years.

Schuster did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Schuster shared videos from his doorbell to KTRK of angry people showing up to his home accusing him of having their items, with one threatening to call the police on him.

“I tried to reach out to tech support already and they just closed my ticket,” he wrote on Instagram. Schuster also reached out to Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, asking for help in resolving the issue.

The “Find My” application is a program that allows Apple users to find their iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches, MacBooks and other products using a geolocation feature.

Schuster claims that the feature is “clearly” broken in his area, resulting in multiple people showing up at his home in recent years.

In his Instagram post, he tagged Apple and said the company should “expect to receive a lawsuit” from him.

He provided proof to KTRK that he’s reached out to Apple Support many times since the beginning of 2022 and even filed a formal report, but he said nothing has been done to fix the issue.

“I don’t trust humans not to show up drunk and outraged in the middle of the night looking for their phone or AirPods (it has happened before),” he wrote on Instagram. “This creates dangerous scenarios and my house is in the crosshairs.”

Apple did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(UVALDE, Texas) — Students of the Uvalde Independent Consolidated School District staged a walkout on Wednesday to protest gun violence, acknowledging the 19 elementary school children and two teachers who were killed after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May.

Uvalde students said they took inspiration from students in Nashville, Tennessee, who conducted a massive walkout on Monday related to The Covenant School shooting, which left three children and three faculty members dead. That walkout has led to days of peaceful protesting at the Tennessee state house.

Students gathered on the lawn inside the fences of the school, which were put up after the shooting and soon started making their way toward the perimeter.

Junior high students crawled underneath the locked gates to walk off school grounds and joined a march led by the high school students, who are taught on the same campus, to the Uvalde town square, the site of the memorial for the 21 victims of last year’s shooting.

“I’m very proud of my high school peers and everybody here. We saw junior high kids running down main street and that was the coolest thing ever to see the younger kids here helping us out with what we’re trying to protest,” Jackson Rhys Evans, a junior at Uvalde High School, told ABC News.

“I hope what we’re doing inspires other students to walk out of their schools to demand change as well,” Evans added.

Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series focused on the Uvalde community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.

Jazmin Cazares, sister to 9-year-old Jacklyn Cazares who was killed last May, said it’s bittersweet to see so many students come together to protest gun violence.

“I mean look at the crowd. How many kids have been affected by gun violence and this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Cazares told ABC News.

“These are the people most affected by gun violence. They’re getting killed in their schools, they’re bleeding to death on the floor of their classrooms,” she said. “This is bittersweet because none of these kids should be here, they should be in school but instead they have to be here protesting.”

“We’re tired,” a group of students said. “If we don’t talk, who else will?”

“I’m scared of dying every day. I’m scared,” yelled one student.

“We are afraid to go out anywhere. This is everything we think about,” said another, speaking through tears.

Ana Rodriguez, whose 10-year-old daughter Maite Rodriguez was killed in the Robb shooting, was there in support of students.

“It means a lot. Look at them–look at how many kids are out here,” Rodriguez told ABC News. “They’re scared for their lives, and they care about what happened here. That means a lot to me that we have so much support from our students.”

Adam Martinez, parent of a Robb Elementary survivor and a UCISD junior high student, and founder of Uvalde-based community improvement group KARAMA, told ABC News that he has no faith in the district’s ability to make decisions in the best interest of their students.

“I’m disgusted by it,” Martinez said. “I’ve never been impressed by their decisions. They’re reactionary, not proactive. I don’t have confidence in what they do at all. They’re incompetent.”

Democratic Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, has put forth several bills this session to enact gun reform, ranging from banning “kid killer” hollow bullets that expand on contact to establishing a permanent compensation fund for victims of school shootings, with little success among the super-majority Republican legislature.

“Children shouldn’t have to walk out of class so that adults can find the political will to do something to keep them safe,” Gutierrez told ABC News in a written statement. “Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in America. Our young kids are dying in schools nationwide because politicians refuse to change gun laws.”

An email from UCISD that went out on Tuesday read, “The administration has been made aware of a social media call for a walkout on Wednesday, April 5th at noon to draw attention to gun control safety. We intend to be sensitive to this issue and allow students to participate in a controlled walkout… Safety continues to be our top priority, and ensuring our students’ safety outside of our secured fenced area is challenging.”

The district did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

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(BOSTON) — A Defense Department training exercise in Boston went wrong when federal personnel incorrectly detained a person in a hotel who was not a part of the exercise, according to an FBI spokesperson.

Around 10 p.m. Tuesday, FBI agents helped Department of Defense officials with a training exercise “to simulate a situation their personnel might encounter in a deployed environment,” the FBI said in a statement.

“Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player,” the FBI said.

Nobody was injured, the FBI said.

The person who was incorrectly detained has not been identified.

“Safety is always a priority of the FBI, and our law enforcement partners, and we take these incidents very seriously,” the FBI added. “The Boston Division is reviewing the incident with DOD for further action as deemed appropriate.”

A Defense Department spokesman referred ABC News to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command public affairs office for information on the incident.

A spokesperson for U.S. Army Special Operations Command said members of the command were conducting “essential military training” with assistance from the FBI-Boston Division at the time.

“The training was meant to enhance soldiers’ skills to operate in realistic and unfamiliar environments. The training team, unfortunately, entered the wrong room and detained an individual unaffiliated with the exercise,” the spokesperson, Lt. Col. Mike Burns, said in a statement. “The Boston Police Department responded to the scene and confirmed that this was indeed a training exercise.”

Burns said they are reviewing this “serious incident” with their partners.

“First and foremost, we’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the individual who was affected by the training exercise,” Burns said. “The safety of civilians in vicinity of our training is always our number one concern.”

ABC News Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(WINONA, Minn.) — A Minnesota mother of two has been missing for nearly a week under “suspicious” circumstances, said police, who are investigating whether foul play is involved.

Madeline Kingsbury, 26, was last seen Friday morning, police said. She and her children’s father dropped the children off at a day care shortly after 8 a.m. before returning to her home in Winona, according to Winona Police Chief Tom Williams. The children’s father told police he left the house in Kingsbury’s van around 10 a.m., but when he returned later that day, Kingsbury was not there, Williams said at a press conference Wednesday.

Kingsbury did not show up for work that day. She also did not respond to “numerous” calls and messages from friends and family and failed to pick up her children from day care that afternoon, which is “extremely out of character for her,” police said.

“We believe Maddi’s disappearance is involuntary, suspicious and we are all concerned for her safety,” said Williams.

There is no indication Kingsbury left home on foot or in another vehicle, and her cellphone, wallet and ID were found in the house, Williams said.

Investigators obtained surveillance video showing a van matching the description of Kingsbury’s leaving and returning to the area of her home between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Williams said. Authorities said they could not share information at this time on who was driving it.

“Based on the investigation, we know that the children were dropped off at the day care and that the van returned home,” said Williams, adding that “the investigation is still open and ongoing as to what happened upon returning home.”

Williams asked residents in surrounding areas to check their home cameras for signs of a dark blue minivan “driving by or stopping.” The Winona Police Department has also requested that residents of Winona and nearby Wilson Township and Hillsdale Township search their property “for anything suspicious that may help find Madeline.”

Authorities said they have not identified any suspects or persons of interest.

Kingsbury’s family announced Wednesday they are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

“Please help us find Madeline,” her sister, Megan Kingsbury, said during emotional comments at the press conference. “Her children need their mother. We need our daughter, our sister, our aunt and our best friend back.”

Her sister described Kingsbury as a “hard-working and dedicated mother” who works for the Mayo Clinic and is a graduate student.

Her children — a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl — are safe, the police chief said.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is assisting in the investigation.

“We are very hopeful we will find her,” Williams said.

Police described Kingsbury as 5-foot-4 and weighing 135 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Winona Police Department at 507-457-6288.

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(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — When California’s Pajaro River flooded around midnight on March 11, breaching a levee, the neighboring area was urged to evacuate — with many leaving around 1 a.m. carrying only the clothes on their backs, according to some of those forced to flee.

It was “the worst case scenario,” Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, wrote in a tweet.

Nonprofits and the state government have stepped in to assist residents, but advocates say they have growing concerns that Pajaro is being overlooked and that many of the local immigrant families may be left behind because some of them don’t have legal status in the country — though California government officials insist otherwise, saying that their aid isn’t tied to immigration laws.

Pajaro is an unincorporated community that sits about 90 miles south of San Francisco. It is 92% Hispanic and slightly more than 18% of the 3,000 residents live under the poverty line, according to one estimate.

“I see my grandfather in a lot of these older workers. It hurts me when people fail to recognize their hard work, their humility,” said Ray Cancino, CEO of Community Bridges, a nonprofit that is helping the flood victims.

More than 330 residents are still receiving emergency shelter services as of this week, according to a statement from Monterey County Second District Supervisor Glenn Church, and more than 521 households have been served at the local assistance center.

“The County of Monterey will provide whatever assistance we can to individuals in Monterey County impacted by these terrible winter storms regardless of immigration status. In addition to any County resources, we are working with several non-profit groups that are supporting relief efforts for those with or without documentation,” a spokesman for Monterey County’s government, Nicholas Pasculli, said in a statement to ABC News. He also pointed to the state’s services for disaster victims, regardless of immigration status.

But Cancino, with the nonprofit, said the situation still raised concerns. He said that many migrants in Pajaro don’t have legal status, though situations vary and some are in the U.S. lawfully, and that complicates how much the Federal Emergency Management Agency can help them.

“There isn’t enough philanthropic opportunity for us to take care of them,” he told ABC News.

Community leader Sergio Villaron said that he is especially worried about his neighbors who are field and farm workers. With the fields flooded, Villaron said that many of them are not going to be able to work.

“That’s how they feed their families, and if they don’t have that, it’s gonna be hard times for them,” Villaron said.

A FEMA flyer said that non-monetary aid such as medical care or shelter is available to all who face disasters, no matter their immigration status, Villaron said, but he does not know if he and everyone else in his community can apply or where to start the process. (FEMA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has requested a major disaster declaration as a result of the floods. In a press release, he said that the state would support “undocumented workers and communities ineligible for FEMA individual assistance due to immigration status.”

A spokesperson for Newsom said that the state has provided $15 million through local levee assistance and other support to fund the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, which would cover up to 100% of the non-federal costs for the management of the levees.

Cancino believes the majority of evacuated people in Pajaro will likely not be eligible for certain aid from FEMA because of their immigration status, and those that may qualify are the children of laborers.

He said support is crucial while Community Bridges and other nonprofits work to provide housing to the victims.

“Their landlord is going to take probably 18 to 24 months to get their funding from FEMA, to get people to fix things to get it out of habitable and during that time, there’s not gonna be any affordability available anywhere in this county,” Cancino said.

Nonprofits in the area have raised $1.2 million in cash for flood victims and more in supplies, he said, but it is “absolutely not” enough to cover all of the damages.

Newsom said in a news conference last month that $42 million was available for United Way, the international nonprofit network. But the United Way of Monterey County Director Katy Castagna said in a statement to ABC News that the correct amount for local assistance is around $300,000 and the money was from a COVID-19 relief fund, not for the flooding.

“Regarding the overall financial situation, we know it is dire for the whole community of Pajaro,” Castagna said. “A number of community-based organizations and philanthropic partners are collaborating to provide basic needs for those in the shelters, staying in cars and motels. Damage assessments have not been done and we anticipate recovery will take years.”

Amid the struggle to rebuild, Villaron said that the community thinks a lot like him: Stay positive and keep moving forward.

“I can’t feel sad about it now,” he said.

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