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(EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio) — More than a third of the East Cleveland, Ohio, police department is now under indictment after prosecutors charged 11 more current and former members of the troubled law enforcement agency with public corruption and civil rights violations, alleging some of their abuse perpetrated on community residents was akin to “torture.”

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Cleveland Division of the FBI announced the new indictments at a news conference and released police body camera footage showing the officers allegedly beating, kicking and stomping community residents, including several who were brutalized after being handcuffed and appearing to comply with officers order to get on their knees.

“The real victim here was the entire city, all the citizens of East Cleveland, who had to live in a city with fear,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley.

The new indictments increased the number of current and former East Cleveland officers charged with crimes within the last seven months to 16, including the former police chief Scott Gardner, who was indicted in September on multiple counts of theft and fraud. Gardner has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The indictments leave the city with just two dozen remaining officers on the force, officials said.

East Cleveland, which is nine miles east of the city of Cleveland, has a population of 13,586.

Prosecutors said the indictments stemmed from 31 separate incidents between June 2018 and July 2022.

The officers arrested and charged under the new indictments were identified as John Hartman, Nicholas Foti, Ian McInnes, Kyle Wood, Tyler Mundson, Brian Stoll and Laurice Mans. Also indicted were Brian Parks, Daniel Toomer, Tristan Homan and Tre DeHart Robinson.

During Wednesday’s news conference, O’Malley played clips from nine police body cam videos showing officers allegedly abusing citizens.

“People in these videos were giving up, they were showing their hands, they were not threats,” O’Malley said.

One video showed an officer repeatedly stomping on a man who was in police custody on the ground. Another video captured a cop commanding an individual shown on his knees to lie down on his stomach and then allegedly kicking the person in the back, knocking him to the pavement.

Other videos showed an officer shoving a man who had his hands up to the ground and kicking him in the groan. And another video showed an officer allegedly striking a man with his police cruiser and then punching him as he lay on the ground writhing in pain from a broken pelvis.

A video O’Malley said he was particularly “appalled” by showed officers stomping on the head of a handcuffed man and repeatedly deploying stun guns on him.

“I was appalled that we could be witnessing a guy handcuffed and his head stomped, or witnessing a guy handcuffed and being tased while handcuffed repeatedly, which to me is a form of torture,” O’Malley said.

East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King applauded O’Malley for “helping our police department root out these individuals who have committed these alleged offenses.” But King added that the investigations against the officers started with internally.

King said new police body camera equipment the city funded provided much of the supporting evidence for the charges.

“Last year, we were able to upgrade our cameras. The new cameras, the new systems, aren’t reliant on officers to activate them, which lessens the possibility of human error,” King said.

East Cleveland City Council President Juanita Gowdy told ABC affiliate station WEWS-TV in Cleveland that she was “shocked” by the alleged abuse. To fill the staffing void in the police department, Gowdy said she has made an emergency request for patrol assistance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m disappointed and I’m really upset. This should never happen like this,” Gowdy said. “I’m looking forward to having the sheriff to come out and support us because we definitely are going to need help.”

The indictments against the East Cleveland police officers come in the wake of the fatal beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, following a traffic stop. The incident was captured on police body cameras and a stationary security camera and led to the firing of seven officers, including five who are charged with murder.

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(NEW YORK) — Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys have filed a notice of appeal for the former lawyer’s convictions and sentences, a week after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son, court records show.

The notice was filed in the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Thursday.

Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s estate in June 2021.

The life sentences for each murder will run consecutively, Judge Clifton Newman said.

Murdaugh has maintained his innocence throughout the high-profile trial.

“I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paw-Paw,” he said during his sentencing hearing on Friday.

Jurors returned a verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on “Good Morning America that cellphone video placing Murdaugh at the scene minutes before the crime “absolutely” made a difference in the guilty verdict.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(ABILENE, Texas) — An Air Force pilot has made history by becoming one of the first Air Force service members to fly a supersonic aircraft while pregnant.

Maj. Lauren Olme, assistant director of operations for the 77th Weapons Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas, flew a B-1 Lancer, a supersonic bomber. Olme’s child has also become “one of the first babies in the Department of Defense to clock 9.2 hours in a supersonic aircraft,” according to an Air Force press release.

“I can’t overexpress how amazing it is that pregnant women now have the opportunity to fly in all types of aircraft,” Lauren Olme said in a statement. “It’s a very personal decision that [my husband] Mark and I made together because there are risks involved in flying the B-1 while pregnant but after conferring with Air Force and civilian medical doctors, we felt comfortable with me flying for a few weeks.”

Olme is married to Maj. Mark Olme, a bomb wing weapons officer with the 7th Operations Support Squadron, also based at Dyess. The couple are expecting their child in April.

Both Lauren and Mark Olme are U.S. Air Force Academy graduates, trained to fly B-1 bombers and completed the Air Force’s weapons school course, similar to the Navy’s “Top Gun” program.

“Lauren is an amazing lady, deploying a unit, developing a schedule, creating exercise scenarios, being a great pilot and leader, all while building a human,” Mark Olme said in a statement. “I am not sure how she does it all, and with poise and grace. I am extremely proud of her and I can’t wait to tell our child they got to fly supersonic in formation with mommy and daddy.”

The Air Force clarified its policy last year and removed some restrictions for pregnant Air Force members. Air Force members can now “voluntarily request to fly during pregnancy” and do not need a waiver “to fly in the second trimester with an uncomplicated pregnancy in a non-ejection seat aircraft if all flight safety criteria are met.”

“All pregnant aircrew are authorized to apply for a waiver regardless of trimester, aircraft or flight profile,” the Air Force stated in an April 2022 news release.

“These changes are a significant step in the right direction to empowering every member of our team to serve to their full potential,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement at the time. “The Department of the Air Force’s most important asset is our people. We are focused on eliminating barriers that hamper the ability to attract and retain the most talented individuals who want to serve.”

According to Lauren Olme, she was cleared by her medical team to fly until her 22-week mark and seized the opportunity to do something she loved.

“I’m honored to be one of the first to fly in an ejection seat aircraft while pregnant,” Lauren Olme said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it if women in the Air Force didn’t advocate for these types of policy changes, so to live out a policy change that other women worked so hard to enact is truly an honor.”

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(NEWARK, N.J.) — A new monument honoring Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman was unveiled Thursday in downtown Newark, New Jersey.

“Shadow of a Face” sits in the town’s newly created Arts and Education District, replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka told ABC News that amid citizens across the nation removing statues of historical figures during nationwide racial protests, their city “got ahead of it,” and removed Columbus’ statue in the summer of 2020.

“We also wanted to make sure that we put something up because it wasn’t just about removing things, it was also about representing the wholeness and fullness of history,” Baraka said. “And so, we wanted to do that in Newark, and be one of the first folks to put something up in place of statues that were taken down.”

The multi-sensory exhibit offers viewers a new take on historic monuments, with a partnership with Audible providing an auditory experience, in addition to visual and touch.

The center of the piece features an abstract interpretation of Tubman around 25 feet tall and totes a learning wall, featuring educational text that will couple with narrations from citizens of Newark, including Newark native and Grammy-award-winning artist Queen Latifah.

“I learned so much during the creation of this project, and we hope this monument brings Harriet Tubman’s resistance and integrity to people everywhere who really need to hear it. We want people to know, to feel, to understand what was at stake and how incredibly brave Harriet Tubman was,” Latifah said during the press event.

The city issued a nationwide call for artists to apply to produce the piece, and Nina Cooke John was one of five finalists city officials and members chosen.

John, 50, prides herself in abstract expression regarding her architecture and public art piece. She told ABC News that this piece is special to her in addition to being her first permanent public art piece.

“I drew inspiration from Harriet Tubman herself. Really thinking about how to represent this complex woman,” John said. “So just as a humanitarian all around, she was a really amazing woman. So how do I kind of put her up on a pedestal, but really allow us to connect with her one-to-one as a woman.”

Arts and Cultural affairs director at the City of Newark fayemi shakur spearheaded the project for the town, sharing the importance it has to the city specifically.

“People should be able to see themselves in the art around them. And most of our monuments, you know, are of white men or of times of war, very few women figures, very few Black people, people of color, and so this was an opportune time for us to think, really intentional about how we could reimagine public art,” shakur said.

Newark was the location of stops and safe houses on the Underground Railroad, and there is a town legend, according to city administrators, Tubman led runaway slaves to Newark’s First Presbyterian Church – which still stands in downtown Newark today.

The creation of the project took over two years, and was funded by the city, Audible and the Mellon Foundation’s Monument Project, a 2020 initiative focusing on creating monuments throughout the nation of those “who have often been denied historical recognition.”

“With the unveiling of the Harriet Tubman monument this morning, we tell a more complete account of history, and we at Audible are extremely honored to play a small role in that,” Bob Carrigan, CEO of Audible, said at the event.

Sen. Cory Booker, former Newark mayor, also shared his excitement and thanks for the project during Thursday’s event by sending a video.

“This monument will spark an appreciation for a woman who was defined as courage, and a humble, powerful radicalism based in the fundamental ideals of love. It should inspire all of us to action, it should inspire all of us to love our country, not through what we say or the symbols, but through what we do,” he said.

Audible founder Don Katz and distant niece of the Underground Railroad trailblazer Michele John Gavin were also in attendance.

“Let’s forever remember Harriet Tubman for her compassion, courage, bravery, service to others, her patriotism, and her commitment to faith, family, fortitude and freedom,” she said during the event.

The unveiling comes just one day before Harriet Tubman Day on March 10.

“This commission has meant a lot to me as an artist, as an architect, as a woman, and as a mother of Black girls,” John said. “It means a lot to me not only because it provided me with the opportunity to create art in public space, telling the multi-layered story of a powerhouse of a woman.”

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(NEW YORK) — White supremacist propaganda, including the mass distribution of flyers containing hateful language and images, projections on buildings and in-person gatherings, reached a record high in the United States in 2022, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The organization’s yearly assessment of propaganda activity found 6,751 incidents in 2022, the highest number since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 2017. This total includes racist, antisemitic or anti-LGBTQ content and efforts.

The count represented a 38% increase over the previous year, according to the ADL.

According to Carla Hill, Director of Investigative Research with ADL Center on Extremism, said the rise represents a commitment to recruitment and membership within hate groups.

“They’ve clearly bought into the idea that the more attention they get by distributing propaganda, the more people that will embrace their position,” she said, asserting that propaganda normalizes hate speech and messaging.

The organization found that propaganda was reported in every state except Hawaii, with the highest levels of activity found in Texas, followed by Massachusetts, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Utah, Florida, Connecticut and Georgia.

“There’s no question that white supremacists and antisemites are trying to terrorize and harass Americans and have significantly stepped up their use of propaganda as a tactic to make their presence known in communities nationwide,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO, in a statement. “This is a cowardly attempt to intimidate marginalized communities and those who don’t align with their twisted worldview and draw in new recruits.”

White supremacist groups increasingly used banners, often draped over highway overpasses, to publicize their hate-filled messages.

ADL tracked at least 252 banner drops and 167 in-person white supremacist events, a 38% and 55% increase, respectively, from 2021. The distribution of white supremacist propaganda on school campuses saw a 6% decrease, totaling the lowest number since ADL began tracking it in 2017.

“The sheer volume of white supremacist propaganda distributions we are documenting around the country is alarming and dangerous,” said Oren Segal, Vice President of the ADL Center on Extremism.

Segal continued, “We need a whole-of-society approach to combat this activity, including elected officials, community leaders and people of good faith coming together and condemning this activity forcefully.”

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(SAN BERNARDINIO COUNTY, Calif.) — Twelve people have died after powerful storms hit Southern California’s San Bernardino County and cut off mountain communities. However, only one of those deaths, which was caused by a traffic accident, is so far being considered weather-related, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“The preliminary information in the other deaths does not indicate they are weather related, but those investigations are ongoing,” the sheriff’s department said.

A series of snowstorms brought unprecedented snow to California late February into early March. San Bernardino County declared a local emergency on Feb. 27 “after residents of mountain communities found themselves trapped at home or unable to reach home due to several feet of snow that fell over the weekend,” officials said at the time.

On Feb. 23, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the San Bernardino Mountains, the first in more than three decades. The weather service initially forecast a snowfall of about 5 feet at elevations as low as 5,000 feet.

Crews have removed more than 7.2 million cubic yards of snow from highways in San Bernardino County, which equals nearly 2,270 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to the governor’s office.

“We continue to support our allied agencies who made great progress overnight on utility restoration. Last night deputies responded to several well checks; residents were safe, supplied, & declined evacuation. Deputies continue responding to calls & assisting residents,” the sheriff’s department said Wednesday.

Residents have told horror stories about being stuck, snowed in at homes with no way in or out.

Christine Foster, who lives in the San Bernardino Mountains, told ABC News on Monday that she and her 76-year-old father have been hunkered down, unable to get out of their home for 14 days with food running low.

“You can’t even shovel the stuff. It’s just rock hard ice. Shovels just easily break,” Foster said in a telephone interview from her home in Lake Arrowhead.

The storm left about 600 elementary and middle school students from Orange County’s Irvine Unified School District stranded for a weekend, after they were unable to return from a school trip.

More rain and snow are headed toward California Thursday and Friday when a major storm hits the state. An atmospheric river will slam the San Francisco area with heavy rain and dump another 5 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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(SAN BERNARDINIO COUNTY, Calif.) — Twelve people have died after powerful storms hit Southern California’s San Bernardino County and cut off mountain communities. However, only one of those deaths, which was caused by a traffic accident, is so far being considered weather-related, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“The preliminary information in the other deaths does not indicate they are weather related, but those investigations are ongoing,” the sheriff’s department said.

A series of snowstorms brought unprecedented snow to California late February into early March. San Bernardino County declared a local emergency on Feb. 27 “after residents of mountain communities found themselves trapped at home or unable to reach home due to several feet of snow that fell over the weekend,” officials said at the time.

On Feb. 23, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the San Bernardino Mountains, the first in more than three decades. The weather service initially forecast a snowfall of about 5 feet at elevations as low as 5,000 feet.

Crews have removed more than 7.2 million cubic yards of snow from highways in San Bernardino County, which equals nearly 2,270 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to the governor’s office.

“We continue to support our allied agencies who made great progress overnight on utility restoration. Last night deputies responded to several well checks; residents were safe, supplied, & declined evacuation. Deputies continue responding to calls & assisting residents,” the sheriff’s department said Wednesday.

Residents have told horror stories about being stuck, snowed in at homes with no way in or out.

Christine Foster, who lives in the San Bernardino Mountains, told ABC News on Monday that she and her 76-year-old father have been hunkered down, unable to get out of their home for 14 days with food running low.

“You can’t even shovel the stuff. It’s just rock hard ice. Shovels just easily break,” Foster said in a telephone interview from her home in Lake Arrowhead.

The storm left about 600 elementary and middle school students from Orange County’s Irvine Unified School District stranded for a weekend, after they were unable to return from a school trip.

More rain and snow are headed toward California Thursday and Friday when a major storm hits the state. An atmospheric river will slam the San Francisco area with heavy rain and dump another 5 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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(FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz.) — Former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah, who made his mark on Native American education at his reservation and Arizona State University, has died at the age of 85.

Zah was the first elected president in 1990 on the nation’s largest tribal reservation, the Navajo Nation, and had been ill for some time, according to his family. Zah died Tuesday at the Tséhootsooí Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Arizona.

“The Navajo Nation lost one of its iconic leaders last night, Dr. Peterson Zah,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a joint statement by the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President and Navajo Nation Office of the Speaker. “He was the first president of the Navajo Nation, and he was a good champion even in Washington, D.C., in the 90s and the 80s.”

The late leader was born in December 1937 in Low Mountain, a section of the reservation, and attended Phoenix Indian School, a boarding school. He later went to community college and on a basketball scholarship, attended Arizona State University with a major in education where he later returned. He worked as the special adviser to the university’s president on American Indian Affairs for 15 years.

Zah also served as the chairman of the Navajo Nation from 1983 to 1987 before becoming the president from 1991 to 1995.

During his time as chairman, he established the Navajo Nation’s Permanent Trust Fund in 1985 after winning a court battle with Kerr McGee. The court case established the tribe’s authority to tax companies who extracted minerals from the reservation leading to all coal, pipeline, oil, and gas leases being negotiated with increased payment.

He was the 2008 recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Servant Leadership Award and received an honorary doctoral degree from Arizona State University, Colorado College and The College of Santa Fe. Although Zah never held an elected position before being chairman, he exemplified what leadership meant, according to those who were guided by him.

“Shida’í, Mr. Zah, molded our people to think as a nation, and, despite his age and health, he never quit in his mission to see us become who we ought to,” Carl Roeseel Slator, Navajo Nation council delegate, said in a statement. “We are stronger because of his leadership, compassion, intelligence, and gift for elevating the ordinary deliberations of our society into echoes of our future.”

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(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) — A third person has died in the days after a trampling at a concert over the weekend, police announced Thursday.

Nine people were trampled Sunday at the Rochester, New York, concert, leaving three dead and six others with injuries, according to the Rochester Police Department.

Lt. Nicholas Adams said officers responded at 11:05 p.m. based on initial reports of gunshots fired inside Rochester’s Main Street Armory during a concert.

Officers responding to the incident found multiple injured individuals; however, an investigation later found none of the injuries were consistent with gunshot wounds.

“At this time, there is no evidence to support a shooting having occurred inside the event,” Adams wrote in a statement. “The injuries appear to be as a result of a large crowd pushing towards the exits following accounts of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots.”

Three people were transported via ambulance to Strong Memorial Hospital after the incident, where a 33-year-old person, identified as Rhondesia Belton, died from her injuries, officials said.

A second person, identified as Brandy Miller, 35, died on Monday, according to the Rochester Police Department, and a third person, identified as Aisha Stephens, 35, died on Wednesday night, police announced Thursday.

An additional six people were transported by private vehicle to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

Memphis rappers GloRilla and Finesse2tymes performed at Rochester’s Main Street Armory, which has a capacity of 5,000 attendees, on Sunday night.

At 12:11 a.m., GloRilla tweeted, “I’m just now hearing about what happened wtf 😢😢😢praying everybody is ok 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼.”

The incident follows a deadly 2021 crowd crush incident at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas. Ten concertgoers died following the Nov. 5, 2021, incident and hundreds were injured, which led to multiple lawsuits against Scott.

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(NEW YORK) — Federal regulators are looking into a previously unreported incident involving Norfolk Southern potentially mishandling a conductor’s concern on a train carrying hazardous material just weeks after a similar defect precipitated the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

According to a complaint obtained by ABC News, on the morning of Feb. 27, a Norfolk Southern train was lurching through Stoneville, North Carolina, when a safety official manning a hot-box detector desk in Atlanta radioed the crew to alert them that car number 32 was “trending hot,” but not hot enough to trigger an alarm, and that the nearly two-mile train should proceed.

The conductor of the train checked his manifest and made a startling discovery: Car 32 was carrying ethanol, and five cars away, another was carrying propane. Both were labeled as “dangerous” on the train’s manifest, according to the complaint, which was filed with the Federal Railroad Administration.

The complaint alleges that the conductor, now concerned that the “trending hot” warning could lead to an overheated wheel, radioed the desk back and suggested that they stop the train and inspect it. But the dispatcher overruled the crew and urged them onward.

Meanwhile, a maintenance worker in the train’s vicinity allegedly overheard the radio chatter and offered to observe the train as it passed by. The complaint states that when the worker reported that he hadn’t witnessed any smoke, the crew was told to keep going some 40 miles south to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Crew members were “shocked,” according to the complaint. To continue into a heavily populated area after being notified that a car carrying hazardous materials was “trending hot” could potentially pose a profound threat not only to the crew, but to adjacent communities, crew members feared.

Ultimately, the train was able to complete its trip without further incident. But the Federal Railroad Administration is now looking into the previously unreported Feb. 27 incident as part of a broader “safety assessment” of Norfolk Southern, a spokesperson confirmed. The agency said in a press release this week that its assessment would scrutinize “operational control center procedures and dispatcher training,” among other things.

A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the record.

The reported incident on Feb. 27 raises fresh safety and accountability concerns regarding Norfolk Southern and the rail industry at large, three weeks after a wheel bearing overheated on a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials through East Palestine, derailing the train and causing an environmental crisis for nearby residents.

Over the past two decades, major rail carriers and trade groups have spent more than $650 million lobbying in Washington, often advocating against stricter government oversight of its safety procedures, according to the federal watchdog OpenSecrets.

In the wake of the East Palestine derailment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, introduced legislation that would tighten government-backed safety requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials.

But some Senate Republicans have balked at the bill, leaving its fate in question. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has said that “an immediate quick response heavy on regulation needs to be thoughtful and targeted.”

Norfolk Southern, for its part, has already taken steps to self-regulate. Earlier this week, CEO Alan Shaw laid out a six-point plan to “immediately enhance the safety of its operations,” the company said. The initiative will improve its defect detector network, pilot next-generation hot bearing detectors, and generally support a more stringent safety culture, according to officials.

On Wednesday, the Association of American Railroads, a trade group representing major freight railroad companies, announced its own list of new measures, including a commitment “to stopping trains and inspecting bearings whenever the temperature reading from a [hot bearing detector] exceeds 170° above ambient temperature” — a lower threshold than previously required.

But federal regulators aren’t waiting around. In addition to the Federal Railroad Administration safety assessment, the National Transportation and Security Board has taken the extraordinary step of opening a special investigation into Norfolk Southern.

The agency said Tuesday it would scrutinize the company’s “organization and safety culture” after a series of incidents, including the derailment in East Palestine and another derailment in Springfield, Ohio, earlier this month. A press release did not list the reported Feb. 27 incident in North Carolina.

“The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company,” the agency said in a statement. “At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.”

Rail unions are also pressing for more government oversight. After the death of a Norfolk Southern conductor earlier this week near Cleveland, Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, called for “significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”

“All railroad accidents are avoidable,” Hall said.

Shaw, the Norfolk Southern CEO, said in a statement Tuesday that Norfolk Southern would “cooperate fully” with the NTSB and continue to find new solutions to improve the company’s safety practices.

“We are going to invest more in safety,” Shaw said. “This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”

Shaw is scheduled to testify Thursday on Capitol Hill before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

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