(NEW YORK) — Dangerously cold temperatures have taken over the Midwest Wednesday before heading to the Northeast on Thursday.
Wednesday is the coldest morning so far this winter in places like Chicago, where parts of Lake Michigan are filled with ice.
The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — plunged Wednesday morning to about minus 19 in Chicago, minus 30 degrees in Minneapolis, minus 23 in Green Bay and minus 7 in Indianapolis.
The deep freeze then turns to the Northeast.
Thursday morning the wind chill is forecast to fall to minus 4 degrees in Boston, 6 degrees in New York and minus 10 degrees in Watertown, New York.
Even the South will feel the freeze. The wind chill is forecast to drop to 14 degrees in Raleigh, 23 in Atlanta and 21 in Nashville.
(ATLANTA) — Some residents in Atlanta’s wealthiest neighborhood say they want to leave the city and start a new one, saying they are concerned with crime. But the idea comes with an increasing number of economic and social concerns as it gains steam.
Buckhead is located on the north end of town and accounts for about 20% of Atlanta’s half a million residents. The neighborhood is known for having the city’s most expensive hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. It is also home to CEOs, movie stars and their mansions.
Concerns that crime is going unchecked has inspired a group of neighbors to form the Buckhead City Committee. They want the community to vote this November on removing themselves from the city of Atlanta, and starting their own city, with their own police force.
Bill White is leading the charge. He’s the chief executive officer of the Buckhead City Committee and has helped raise over $2 million in donations from as far away as Bangladesh and Australia. He’s a wealthy political fundraiser who only moved to the neighborhood about three years ago, and says one day thieves showed up to his home.
“We had somebody come up our driveway — a pair of criminals who had just harassed a 10-year-old girl,” he said.
White’s critics say his intentions are political, that this is part of a far-right conservative effort to weaken cities run by Democrats. He denies this is the reason.
White said the Atlanta Police Department doesn’t have the resources or the community support to effectively protect residents in his neighborhood. By creating their own city, White said Buckhead’s taxes will be better spent on public safety.
He said a rash of high-profile crimes in Buckhead has sounded alarms. In December, a man was shot at a high-end movie theater in Buckhead. In November, and again in June, people jogging on Buckhead sidewalks were shot in random attacks. At Buckhead’s Lenox Mall, there were several shootings at the property in 2021, and at least two of those people were killed.
“People say enough is enough, and I think this has been brewing for some time,” White said.
“If you look at the policies of the city of Atlanta, this is a criminal’s paradise. There is no adjudication of justice here,” White said. “If you let the criminals know that they can carjack you and they won’t be chased, they can shoplift you and they won’t be prosecuted, people feel like they’re living in a war zone.”
Police say it’s true that they’re not sending police officers to most shoplifting calls, saying that by the time those officers arrive, the thieves are gone, and that their time could be better used. But Atlanta police said their current policies do allow for high-speed chases. Some of their policies changed after lawsuits were filed by innocent drivers who were hurt in car wrecks caused by these chases. Even so, Atlanta police will still chase a driver wanted for murder, for example.
If the effort is successful, White said that a new Buckhead City would form its own police department with more than 250 officers, compared to 80 officers currently assigned to the area.
For many Buckhead residents, Atlanta is not doing enough to ensure their safety. Eliana Kovitch, a health care worker and Buckhead resident, said she is in favor of separation if it means more police on the streets.
“I’ve lived in Buckhead [for a] long time, and for the past year and a half, I’ve been terrified everywhere I go,” she said.
Kovitch said she started feeling unsafe after an incident in June 2020, when she was attacked by a man with a knife while waiting for a Lyft ride with her boyfriend. The suspect, according to the police, was a repeat offender who was arrested days earlier in a different county.
“I don’t side with … the politics of any of it. I wanna be a voice … for victims,” Kovitch said. “Yes, there are more severe crimes, if you wanna put it that way. But everyone has their own experience and … is affected in their own way.”
Across Atlanta’s Police Zone 2, which covers Buckhead, West Midtown, Lenox Park and Piedmont Heights, murders were up 63%, from eight cases to 13 between 2020 and 2021.
While murder rates were up, the city reports that overall crime in this same area (including robberies, burglaries and car break-ins) actually decreased by 6% last year, compared to 2020, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said that even Buckhead’s total number of violent crimes are still a fraction of the violent crimes seen in other neighborhoods. Most other Atlanta neighborhoods had at least 30 murders in 2021, compared to 13 for Buckhead, the fewest in the city.
Bryant said he still doesn’t want to minimize the crime residents are seeing.
“One of the hard things that I have to do is address the perception and what people feel as it relates to crime,” said Bryant. “We recognize that we have to do a better job of that as well. And so that’s something that we will be working with at the mayor’s office — what is it that we can do to really show people the truth? And make them feel what we are seeing in the numbers.”
On the southwest end of the city, Glenda Mack lives in Atlanta’s Zone 4, where 32 people were murdered last year. Her 12-year-old grandson was one of them.
She doesn’t agree with all the focus on Buckhead.
“To me, it’s just a bunch of entitled people that think they can do that because they’re entitled,” she said.
“I don’t understand. They want to leave the city of Atlanta and be their own. Well, you know. I realize the city of Atlanta depends on y’all money. They depend on that too. I pay taxes, too,” Mack said.
David Mack was killed near her home, not far from a police precinct. His family found his body the next morning, and the autopsy later revealed he was shot nine times. Police still haven’t made an arrest in the case.
When it comes to crime, Mack believes the focus should be citywide.
“You can’t just focus on one place, and that’s what I want everyone to know,” she said.
If Buckhead leaves Atlanta, it would underline a racial divide.
The vast majority of Buckhead’s residents — 77.5% of its total population — are white, while 11% are Black and 6% are Asian. Regardless of race, 7% of the neighborhood’s population is Hispanic.
In contrast, Atlanta is nearly 50% African American.
If Buckhead leaves, the neighborhood will also take with it a great deal of tax dollars.
While residents in the neighborhood make up about 20% of the city’s population, their tax bills (through property and commercial taxes) cover about 40% of the city’s expenses.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said it would leave a significant hole in the city’s tax base if Buckhead goes it alone.
“This divorce of Buckhead from Atlanta would be an unnecessarily expensive one for both spouses in this divorce,” Dickens said. “We have a lot of parks and things that … it’s going to cost them. It’s going to be alimony if this happens.”
Dickens took office this month, and has been working with business leaders and other local influencers to keep his city together.
This month, he opened a new police precinct in the heart of Buckhead. He’s also working to establish a better relationship between Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Statehouse, where the decision to allow residents to vote will be made.
“In Atlanta, across Georgia and across the nation, if the wealthier parts of a community decide they want to form another city, they will continue to make lines and draw division between those that are affluent and those who aren’t,” Dickens said. “What does that say about our society?”
The issue now awaits the vote of two bills, one introduced by state Rep. Todd Jones in the Georgia House of Representatives as well as another sponsored by state Sen. Brandon Beach in the Georgia Senate. Both bills will be voted on during the 2022 legislative session in April.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also believes Buckhead’s move to leave the city would hurt the region.
“I think businesses would look negatively upon the separation of those two areas and I think actually it will make the crime issue worse,” he said.
His opinion matters more than many, because as lieutenant governor, he’s able to slow down or speed up legislation in the state Senate. Duncan has assigned the legislation to a committee of Democrats, which is likely to sit on the bill.
And in the Georgia House, Republican House Speaker David Ralston has signaled that he’s not sure Buckhead leaving is in the best interests of the state.
If lawmakers do say yes to a vote, only residents who live in the boundaries of the new city would get to decide. The vote would take place in November.
Atlanta’s mayor said he’s working overtime to convince Buckhead residents to work with him on the issues.
“When individuals choose to divide and choose separation as that answer, they’re not going to get the result that they were seeking. They’re not going to have a better community. They are not going to have a safer community,” Dickens said.
“When we come out of this pandemic, and as we’re in it, we have to lock arms and work together to solve these issues,” he added. “Separation has rarely been the answer for community-based issues. We do things together in Atlanta and across America, and the benefits would be seen broadly.”
(NEW YORK) — Police in New York City have released new video of the suspect wanted for shooting an 11-month-old girl in the face in the Bronx.
A reward has now climbed to $10,000, police said.
The shooting took place at about 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 19 while the baby was in a parked car with her mother outside a grocery store, waiting for the father who was inside the store, police said.
A man chasing another man fired two shots, hitting the baby in the face, police said.
The NYPD said the suspect fled in a gray Nissan.
The baby girl, Catherine, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition and turned 1 days later. Her current condition isn’t clear.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark addressed the gunman in an interview with ABC New York station WABC last week, saying, “you’re not going to get away with it. … We’re going to find you eventually, because we’re not going to stop looking.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 800-577-TIPS.
(BALTIMORE) — The city of Baltimore is in mourning after three firefighters were killed when they responded to a fire and became trapped inside.
Lt. Paul Butrim, firefighter Kelsey Sadler and firefighter Kenny Lacayo died while battling a blaze at a vacant row-home Monday morning.
The house partially collapsed, trapping them inside, along with a fourth firefighter, John McMaster, who survived and is in critical but stable condition.
Lt. Butrim was a 16-year veteran of the department. Sadler spent 15 years with the department and Lacayo was with the department for seven years.
“This is a gut-wrenching tragedy for our city, the Baltimore City Fire Department, and most importantly the families of our firefighters,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “My heart is with the firefighters, their families, and the entire Baltimore City Fire Department who put the lives and safety of others before their own wellbeing each and every day. I ask that all of Baltimore keep them in our prayers during this extremely difficult time.”
Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford said, “From this moment, we will honor those we lost today, for their bravery, their courage, their love for helping others and the respect they had for the Baltimore City Fire Department.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered flags lowered to half-staff.
Law enforcement and sports teams in Baltimore are also offering their condolences.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 868,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 25, 4:40 pm
Weekly reported cases set new record at more than 21 million
Over 21 million new weekly cases were reported across the globe — the most recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.
The U.S. (4,215, 852 new cases — a 24% decrease from the previous week) reported the most, followed by France (2,443,821 new cases — a 21% increase).
The U.S. also recorded 10,795 deaths — the most of any nation.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Jan 25, 4:25 pm
US hospital admissions drop 8% even as 13 states see surges
Nearly 20,000 Americans with COVID-19 are being admitted to hospitals each day — an 8% drop over the last week, according to federal data.
But 13 states saw COVID-19-related hospital admission rates jump by at least 10%: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Emergency department visits for diagnosed COVID-19 cases declined nearly 24% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
While the U.S. case rate is steadily falling — down by 15% in the last week to an average of 664,000 new cases — case rates still remain higher than any other point of the pandemic, according to federal data.
Wisconsin is leading the nation in new cases per capita, followed by Rhode Island, Utah and South Carolina.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 25, 12:18 pm
Elton John tests positive, Dallas concerts postponed
Elton John has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to postpone his concerts on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, according to a statement from the venue.
“Elton is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is experiencing only mild symptoms,” the statement said. “Fans should hold on to their tickets as they will be honored at the rescheduled dates to be announced soon.”
Jan 25, 12:02 pm
Florida governor vows to ‘fight back’ against FDA’s ‘reckless’ decision
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to “fight back” against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “reckless” decision to limit the use of two monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 that were found to be ineffective against the now-dominant omicron variant.
“This is wrong what they are doing, and we have many people now who are very concerned because they were going to go in and get it today or tomorrow,” DeSantis said during a press conference Tuesday.
While the governor acknowledged that the treatments are less effective against omicron, he claimed that people in Florida have seen their COVID-19 symptoms clear up in the last month after receiving the treatments. DeSantis, however, did not offer data to support that claim.
“We’re going to fight back against this,” he told reporters.
When asked whether he plans to take legal action against the federal government, DeSantis said: “I don’t know. We’re going to see what we can do.”
With omicron accounting for more than 99% of COVID-19 infections nationwide, the FDA on Monday revised its authorizations for two of the main monoclonal antibody treatments that have been widely used across the country — one made by Eli Lilly and the other by Regeneron. The FDA said both treatments are no longer authorized for use in any U.S. state, territory or jurisdiction and should not be used for treatment against COVID-19. In the future, the treatments could still be used to help patients who become sick with other variants, according to the FDA.
Following the FDA’s decision, Florida health officials announced that monoclonal antibody treatment sites would be shut down across the state. More than 2,000 appointments for the treatments were canceled statewide on Tuesday alone, according to the governor’s office.
“Unfortunately, as a result of this abrupt decision made by the federal government, all monoclonal antibody state sites will be closed until further notice,” the Florida Department of Health said in a statement late Monday. “Florida disagrees with the decision that blocks access to any available treatments in absence of clinical evidence. To date, such clinical evidence has not been provided by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie and Sasha Pezenik
Jan 25, 10:43 am
Kentucky governor’s son tests positive as state’s cases skyrocket
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s son has tested positive for COVID-19 as cases in the state skyrocket.
“My son is generally asymptomatic, we believe because he is vaccinated and boosted,” Beshear said Monday.
The governor and the rest of his family tested negative on Monday, according to Beshear’s office.
Kentucky reported 81,473 cases for the week ending on Sunday — a record high.
Hospitalizations are also approaching a record high, his office said.
Jan 25, 9:18 am
WHO warns of rising cases of omicron sub-variant
The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm over rising cases of a new omicron sub-variant.
In an updated post to its website on Monday, the WHO said the new sub-variant, called BA.2, is a descendant of omicron, the now-dominant, highly contagious variant of the novel coronavirus. Unlike omicron, BA.2 is currently not considered a “variant of concern.” But because it is spreading in many countries, the WHO is asking governments and scientists across the globe to monitor the situation and study the new sub-variant, as many have already been doing.
As of last Friday, BA.2 had already been detected in at least 40 countries, including the United States. It has already spread quickly in Denmark, where early reports indicate it doesn’t appear to be deadlier than its parent variant. The sub-variant is now also spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom.
While BA.2 is a descendent of omicron, it has slightly different mutations. Omicron has several sub-variants, as does the previously dominant, highly transmissible delta variant.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Jan 25, 6:45 am
Pfizer, BioNTech announce clinical studies for omicron-based vaccine
Pfizer and BioNTech said on Tuesday they have initiated clinical studies to evaluate an omicron-based vaccine for adults.
The trials will evaluate the “safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity” of the omicron-based vaccine for healthy adults between 18 and 55 years old, the companies said. About 1,400 participants will receive one of three combinations of the companies’ current vaccine and the omicron-based vaccine.
“While current research and real-world data show that boosters continue to provide a high level of protection against severe disease and hospitalization with Omicron, we recognize the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address Omicron and new variants in the future,” said Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of vaccine research & development at Pfizer, said in a statement.
The companies said 615 participants will receive a dose of the omicron booster after two doses of the current vaccine. Another 600 participants will receive a dose of the omicron booster after three doses of the current vaccine. The final 205 participants, who have not been vaccinated, will receive three doses of the omicron vaccine.
Pfizer and BioNTech said they expected to have initial findings in the first half of 2022. ABC News has also learned Moderna is expected to start similar human trials of an omicron-specific vaccine within the coming days.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Jan 25, 6:34 am
London police probe Downing Street lockdown parties
London police said Tuesday they are investigating parties that allegedly took place at British Prime Minister Boris Johnon’s official residence and executive office while England was under strict lockdown because of COVID-19.
In a statement before the London Assembly, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced the investigation into “a number of events” at 10 Downing Street.
“The fact that we are now investigating does not, of course, mean that fixed penalty notices will necessarily be issued in every instance and to every person involved,” Dick said. “We will not be giving a running commentary on our current investigations.”
Johnson is facing growing anger and calls for his resignation over claims he and his staff flouted COVID-19 restrictions imposed by his government. In the latest allegation, ITV News reported that the prime minister attended a surprise birthday party held for him at his office during the first lockdown in June 2020 and later hosted friends in his apartment upstairs that evening. At that time, people in England were barred from meeting more than one individual outside their household.
A spokesperson for Johnson’s office called the claim “totally untrue,” telling ITV News in a statement that, “in line with the rules at the time, the prime minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
Earlier this month, Johnson acknowledged for the first time that he went to a garden party at 10 Downing Street during the first lockdown in May 2020. While he didn’t explicitly admit that he had broken any rules, the prime minister apologized and said he had considered the garden party to be a work event to thank his staff for their efforts during the pandemic.
It was unclear which events London’s Metropolitan Police Service is investigating.
Jan 25, 5:42 am
Crisis standards of care activated in southern Idaho
Crisis standards of care have been adopted in much of southern Idaho, as hospitals grapple with a surge in COVID-19 patients.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, citing severe staffing and blood supply shortages, activated crisis standards of care on Monday for the southwest, central and south central public health districts, which encompass 18 counties including the Boise, Nampa and Twin Falls metropolitan areas. Crisis standards of care provide legal and ethical guidelines for how health care providers should allocate scarce, life-saving resources, such as ventilators and intensive care unit beds, during an overwhelming public health emergency.
“The highly contagious Omicron variant has thrown us a curve ball,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in a statement Monday. “Once again, the situation in our hospitals and health systems is dire — we don’t have enough resources to adequately treat patients.”
It was the second time amid the coronavirus pandemic that the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has activated crisis standards of care. Health care rationing was authorized in northern Idaho last September before being extended to the entire state 10 days later. The guidelines were fully deactivated by the end of December.
The latest activation came in response to a request from Saint Alphonsus Health System, which has hospitals in southwestern Idaho as well as eastern Oregon. Jeppesen convened Idaho’s crisis standards of care activation advisory committee last Friday, and the committee recommended that the guidelines be activated statewide. Jeppesen decided to only make the designation for southern Idaho, but said other parts of the state will likely be added if current COVID-19 trends continue.
Jeppesen urged residents to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and to wear high-quality face masks in public places.
“Omicron is so much more contagious than previous variants, and even though a lower percentage of cases are ending up in the hospital, the record number of cases is still putting strain on our healthcare system,” he said.
Jan 24, 4:05 pm
Pediatric cases sky-high but hospitalizations show decline
More than 1.1 million children tested positive for COVID-19 last week — nearly five times the rate of the peak of last winters’ surge, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
A total of 10.6 million children have tested positive since the onset of the pandemic. A fifth of those children — over 2 million kids — tested positive in just the last two weeks, according to the two organizations.
Pediatric cases in the Northeast are seeing a dramatic drop but new cases in the West, South and the Midwest are still surging.
But there is positive news: COVID-19-related hospitalizations among children fell this week for the first time in one month.
More than 28.4 million eligible children remain unvaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — A second NYPD officer has died after being shot at a domestic violence call in Harlem this weekend.
Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, who died Tuesday, is “3 times a hero,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted. “For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation.”
Mora was shot while responding to a 911 call Friday night from a woman who was in a dispute with her son. She said her son was in a back bedroom, and when the officers approached the bedroom, the door swung open and the suspect fired, police said.
Mora’s partner, officer Jason Rivera, 22, was struck first at the scene and died from his injuries.
A third officer, 27-year-old Sumit Sulan, opened fire on the suspect, LaShawn McNeil.
McNeil, 47, later died from his injuries.
Mora and Rivera are among five NYPD officers who have been shot this month, the commissioner said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, on Monday unveiled a new strategy to combat violent crime.
“New Yorkers feel as if a sea of violence is engulfing our city,” Adams said. “But as your mayor, I promise you I will not let this happen. We will not surrender our city to the violent feud. We won’t go back to the bad old days.”
(FORT PIERCE INLET, Fla.) — The Coast Guard was combing the waters off eastern Florida Tuesday afternoon, looking for 39 people on a boat that capsized.
The vessel may have been part of a “human smuggling venture,” the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said it had received a report from a good Samaritan who rescued a man clinging to the vessel, roughly 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet, around 8 a.m.
The survivor said he left Bimini, Bahamas, on Saturday night, and that their boat encountered turbulent weather. No one was wearing a life jacket, according to the survivor.
Coast Guard boats and aircraft were searching throughout the morning, and as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, no other survivors had been discovered.
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo.
Joaquin Guzman sought to overturn his conviction in Brooklyn federal court on ten grounds. The appellate court concluded “none of these claims has merit.”
Among Guzman’s arguments, the strict conditions of his confinement before trial inhibited his rights to prepare a defense and benefit from the assistance of counsel.
“The District Court did not err in concluding that Guzman was able to assist in his own defense and receive a fair trial, despite the conditions of his pretrial confinement,” the decision from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said. “The conditions of Guzman’s pretrial confinement, harsh as they were, do not provide a basis for disturbing his conviction.”
“While respecting the Court’s ruling, we’re disappointed that substantial allegations of grave jury misconduct continue to be swept under the rug and left wholly unexamined in a case of historic proportion — all, it appears, because of the defendant’s matchless notoriety,” said Guzman’s attorney, Marc Fernich, in a statement Tuesday.
Guzman was convicted in 2019 of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, including large-scale narcotics violations and a murder conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracies, unlawful use of a firearm, and a money laundering conspiracy. He is currently serving a life sentence.
El Chapo was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Under his leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel imported more than a million kilograms of cocaine and hundreds of kilograms of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine into the United States. Trial evidence proved the cartel used murder, kidnapping, torture, bribery of officials, and other illegal methods to control territory throughout Mexico and to subdue opposition.
In November, Guzman’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana for import into the U.S; money-laundering and helping run the Mexican drug cartel in which her husband was the boss.
(MILWAUKEE) — Six people were found dead at a home in Wisconsin’s largest city in what police are investigating as a homicide.
Officers were conducting a welfare check at a residence in Milwaukee’s Park West neighborhood on Sunday afternoon when they discovered the bodies of four men and one woman, according to the Milwaukee Police Department. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office announced early Monday that the body of a fifth man was also found at the location.
During a press conference Sunday night, Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief Paul Formolo said all of the deaths are being considered homicides, though he did not provide a cause of death. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed via Twitter overnight that the sixth body was also a homicide victim. Autopsies are expected to be conducted Monday, according to Formolo.
Investigators are still working to determine the identities of the deceased and for how long they were dead before officers arrived, Formolo said.
When asked whether a weapon was found in the home, Formolo told reporters that officers are actively searching the residence but did not give further information. He did not confirm if a suspect was among the deceased and could not comment on the relationships between the victims. However, he said there was no indication to suggest that the incident poses a threat to the community.
An investigation into the deaths is ongoing. A motive was unknown, according to Formolo.
Arnitta Holliman, director of the Milwaukee Office of Violence and Prevention, urged members of the community to contact the Milwaukee Police Department or Milwaukee Crime Stoppers if they think they have any relevant information.
“The community is tired, we are tired of seeing people’s lives snuffed out too soon in preventable situations,” Holliman told reporters. “Each and every one of us has to step up, speak up, stand up, do something.”
“Milwaukee is great place and can continue to be one,” she added, “but we cannot continue to see the kind of violence, level of violence, that we’ve been seeing.”
Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson released a statement on Sunday evening describing the deaths as “horrific.”
“It is important not to feel numbed by the ongoing violence in our community,” Johnson said. “A horrible crime has again occurred, and it is not a movie or a fictional account. These victims died in our city, in one of our neighborhoods.”
ABC News’ Jakeira Gilbert contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 868,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Pediatric cases sky-high but hospitalizations show decline
-31 states report plateauing or decreasing new case rates
-Palin tests positive for COVID, delaying her libel trial against New York Times
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Jan 24, 4:05 pm
Pediatric cases sky-high but hospitalizations show decline
More than 1.1 million children tested positive for COVID-19 last week — nearly five times the rate of the peak of last winters’ surge, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
A total of 10.6 million children have tested positive since the onset of the pandemic. A fifth of those children — over 2 million kids — tested positive in just the last two weeks, according to the two organizations.
Pediatric cases in the Northeast are seeing a dramatic drop but new cases in the West, South and the Midwest are still surging.
But there is positive news: COVID-19-related hospitalizations among children fell this week for the first time in one month.
More than 28.4 million eligible children remain unvaccinated.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 24, 1:18 pm
New Jersey cases drop by two-thirds in 2 weeks
The omicron surge appears to be letting up in New Jersey, where cases are now down by roughly two-thirds from two weeks ago, Gov. Phil Murphy announced.
While hospitalization numbers have been falling this week, Murphy stressed that they’re still “higher than anything we had seen with the two prior surges.”
“We also remain very concerned about the ICU and ventilator numbers, which are coming down much more slowly,” the governor said.
Jan 24, 12:26 pm
31 states report plateauing or decreasing new case rates
Following weeks of increasing infections, COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are rising. The nation is now reporting nearly 2,000 new COVID-19-related deaths per day — up by 30% in the last two weeks, according to federal data.
But there’s continued evidence that the nation’s most recent surge may be receding in many regions. Thirty-one states as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are now reporting decreasing or plateauing new case averages, according to federal data.
The only states with an increase in new cases are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Nationwide, the U.S. is reporting an average of 716,000 new cases per day, down by about 10% in the last week.
However, case levels in the U.S. remain incredibly high. In the last seven days, the U.S. reported more than 5 million new cases. Only 1% of U.S. counties aren’t reporting high transmission, according to federal data.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 24, 11:51 am
Palin tests positive for COVID, delaying her libel trial against New York Times
Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has tested positive for COVID-19, a Manhattan federal court judge announced Monday, as her libel trial against the New York Times was about to begin.
“Since she has apparently tested positive three times I’m going to assume she’s positive,” Judge Jed Rakoff said.
The libel case between Palin and the newspaper has now been delayed until Feb. 2.
Palin sued the New York Times after an editorial incorrectly linked her political rhetoric to the mass shooting that gravely injured Rep. Gabby Giffords. Palin is expected to testify.
