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(DOUGLASVILLE, Georgia) — A $20,000 reward is being offered in the investigation of a shooting outside a suburban Atlanta “Sweet 16” birthday party over the weekend that left two children dead and seven teenagers wounded, authorities said.

The victims who were killed late Saturday night outside the house party in Douglasville were identified as 14-year-old AJ’anaye Hill and 15-year-old Samuel Moon, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The seven victims injured in the shooting ranged in age from 14 to 19, the sheriff’s office said.

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Pound announced the reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect or suspects.

“It’s just going to take me awhile to do it, but I’m going to catch them because we’ve got to stop this senseless killing,” Pound said at a news conference.

Pound pleaded for help from the community in solving the double homicide, saying, “Someone out there knows something.”

Capt. Jon Mauney of the sheriff department’s criminal special investigations division, said gunfire erupted about 10:41 p.m. Saturday, shortly after the homeowners throwing the house party shut down the celebration because some attendees were smoking marijuana and the crowd had grown to more than 100 teenagers.

The homeowners were throwing a “Sweet 16” birthday party for their child, ABC affiliate station WSB-TV in Atlanta reported.

When deputies arrived at the shooting scene outside a home on a cul-de-sac, they found a large number of teenagers running in all directions, Mauney said.

“Two children were deceased at the scene, one in the middle of the roadway and another on a driveway at a house on the cul-de-sac,” Mauney said.

He said Hill was a freshman at Douglas County High School in Douglasville and Moon was a sophomore at Lithia Springs High School in Lithia Springs, Georgia.

Mauney said more than 80 witnesses who attended the party have been questioned by investigators, who are combing the area for security video they hope captured images of the shooting.

A motive remains under investigation. No suspects have been identified, authorities said.

“This is an all-out assault on our young people, on our children, on our babies in our community,” said Douglas County District Attorney Dalia Racine. “We have got to figure out a solution.”

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(NEW YORK) — The FBI announced a new reward Tuesday of up to $250,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the suspect involved in the unsolved 2008 bombing of the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square.

The suspect, or suspects, may be connected to two other unsolved bombings in New York, at the British consulate in 2005 and the Mexican consulate in 2007, the FBI said.

The origin of the components of the explosive device in Times Square has been identified and is being investigated, but public help is needed to identify the person or persons responsible.

“Fifteen years may have passed since the bombing occurred, but the New York JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] is unwavering in the pursuit of justice in this case,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll. “If you have any information about this incident or those responsible for it, please contact us.”

It was early in the morning of March 6, 2008, when a bomb exploded at the Times Square U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in the heart of Times Square. The suspect rode a blue Ross bicycle west on 37th Street, took a right up Sixth Avenue and made a left on 47th Street before turning left down Seventh Avenue.

The suspect got off his bike near the recruiting station at West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue, placed the explosive device at the recruiting station, lit a fuse and fled the scene on the bicycle.

Although the suspect appears to be working alone, he or she may have had a lookout or surveillance team of as many as five other individuals in Times Square at the time of the attack, the FBI said. The suspect then rode his or her bike south on Broadway before turning left on 38th Street. The bike was later recovered in a dumpster near Madison Avenue and 38th Street.

The explosive device was built using an ammunition can. It was filled halfway with black powder and detonated using a time fuse.

Although no one was wounded, the device could have caused significant casualties if people had been close to the blast. The components are similar to those of the two other bomb attacks.

The FBI had announced a reward of $115,000 in the case in 2015. At the time, the agency said it had investigated “several” people of interest in the case.

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(NEW YORK) — Sayfullo Saipov is “a proud terrorist” who deserves the death penalty for the “unremorseful slaughter of innocent civilians” during a Halloween 2017 terror attack in New York City, a prosecutor argued in federal court on Tuesday.

Saipov was convicted in January of killing eight people and trying to kill 18 more in the ISIS-inspired truck attack on a bike path adjacent to the Hudson River. It was the deadliest terror attack in New York since Sept. 11, 2001.

A jury will soon begin deliberating on whether he should get the death penalty.

During closing arguments in the penalty phase on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle showed photographs of each of the deceased victims that depicted them in the bloodied, twisted state in which they were found.

“It is brutal to look at these photographs but it is important because that brutality is exactly what the defendant intended,” Houle said. “With each death he made himself more culpable, more deserving of the ultimate punishment.”

Saipov, in a dark jacket and white shirt, sat at the defense table with his head bowed, hands in his lap and mask covering his face. Nine of the 28 counts he was convicted of carry the possibility of the death penalty.

“Murder is always terrible but when the defendant made the choice to murder multiple people he exposed himself to a harsher punishment,” Houle said. “He stole eight lives.”

Houle showed photographs of the victims with their families and reminded the jury of the anguished testimony of the victims’ relatives. Hernan Ferruchi’s widow testified her “life came crashing down.” Diego Angelini’s widow testified “she still thinks about Diego every single day” and how their children — ages 11, 9, 7 and 5 — cry because they miss him.

“The defendant chose to take so much from all of these families,” Houle said.

Ann-Laure Decadt’s baby, Joseph, was weeks old when she was killed in the attack. The jury saw photos of the mother and baby. Decadt’s mother and sister were on the bike path with her and watched her die.

“A word has not yet been invented to describe the pain she feels,” Houle said of Decadt’s mother’s testimony.

During the prosecutor’s closing statement, the husband of an FBI agent associated with the case suffered a medical episode and was taken from the courtroom. An ambulance was called.

After a recess, the defense moved for a mistrial and asked that jurors be told who the person is.

“There is no way they won’t speculate about someone sitting with the victims’ families,” defense attorney David Patton said.

At the time, the jury was watching a video that depicted the mangled school bus Saipov had struck. Children were inside and the driver was injured.

“Someone had a very strong reaction to that,” Patton said.

Federal prosecutors objected to the mistrial.

“The defendant has not been deprived of a fair trial because someone suffered a medical episode,” Houle said.

The defense compared the moment to an emotional outburst during the penalty phase by Saipov’s father, who shouted “dirty ISIS bastards” and punched the door on his way out of court.

“The two are not even close,” Judge Vernon Broderick said.

Broderick denied the mistrial and declined to identify to the jury who suffered the medical episode. He told jurors the episode “had no bearing on the case” and instructed them to disregard it.

A death sentence for Saipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, would be the first by a federal jury in New York in decades. Federal juries in Brooklyn approved a death sentence for a man who murdered two New York police detectives in 2007 and 2013, but both sentences were tossed out on appeal.

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(NEW YORK) — More rain and snow are headed to hard-hit California, where some residents are still digging out from the massive snowfall that’s been pounding the region.

The next major storm is expected Thursday and Friday when the atmospheric river slams the San Francisco area with heavy rain and brings about 5 more feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Major flooding is possible in some areas.

In the areas with deep piles of snow, the snow could absorb the rain, and prevent extreme flooding. But that will make the snow even heavier and could cause roofs to collapse.

This comes after the Sierra Nevada mountain region was buried by 16 feet of snow in just the last two weeks.

The Sierra’s snowfall total for the season now stands at 48.33 feet, marking the snowiest season since the winter of 2010-2011. But this year isn’t the snowiest season on record; the winter of 1951-1952 holds the record at 67.65 feet of snow.

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

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(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut elementary school teacher has been arrested after she allegedly demonstrated a chokehold on her students, causing one of them to faint, authorities said.

The alleged incident occurred last month at Brookside Elementary School in Norwalk, Connecticut. The Norwalk Police Department said in a press release on Saturday that it was contacted by Norwalk Public Schools on Feb. 24 after “a staff member had just rendered a student unconscious at Brookside Elementary School.”

The police department immediately deployed its Special Victims Unit to investigate the case and a probe revealed that 50-year-old Stefanie Sanabria, who was working as a math coach at the school, “had demonstrated a martial arts choke hold on three fifth-grade students in class” and “one of the students lost consciousness as a result,” according to the press release.

The child was “immediately” treated by the school nurse, police said. The child’s condition was unknown.

A spokesperson for Norwalk Public Schools said the student did not sustain any permanent injury and that Sanabria has since resigned.

“The safety of our students is our first concern, and we immediately investigated the situation involving Ms. Sanabria when it occurred,” the spokesperson told New Haven ABC affiliate WTNH-TV in a statement.

Police did not say why Sanabria was showcasing martial arts moves on students or at school.

Based on findings from the ongoing investigation, an arrest warrant for Sanabria was issued last Friday and she was taken into custody on $20,000 bond at her home in Danbury, Connecticut. She has been charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree strangulation and risk of injury to a minor, according to police.

Sanabria’s initial court appearance is scheduled for March 10, police said. It was unclear whether she had retained an attorney.

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(INDIANAPOLIS) — A suspect remains at large after a man was shot dead outside Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis on Monday night, police said.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department deployed officers to the scene just before 10 p.m. ET, after receiving multiple reports that a person had been shot. Officers found a gunshot victim — an unnamed adult male — on a sidewalk outside the stadium, which is home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, according to William Young, a police public information officer.

“It is important to note that this did not happen inside of the convention center, nor did it happen inside of Lucas Oil Stadium,” Young said during a brief press conference on Monday night. “We do have information that led officers to believe that a suspect or an alleged suspect did go inside of the convention center.”

The Indiana Convention Center was placed under lockdown with those inside asked to shelter in place, as officers swept the venue to ensure everyone was safe and there were no additional victims. All streets around Lucas Oil Stadium were also closed due to the ongoing investigation, according to Young.

Young, who did not take questions from reporters, said there was “a heavy police presence” in the area and urged members of the public to “stay away.”

“At this time, we do not have a suspect in custody,” he added. “This is a very active scene.”

Later Monday, as the investigation continued, police announced via Twitter that a review of the the Indiana Convention Center’s surveillance footage showed the unidentified suspect entering and then leaving the building. The suspect was not able to go back inside, police tweeted.

The lockdown at the convention center was later lifted and some of surrounding roads were reopened, though investigators remained on scene.

Further details on the incident were not immediately available.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch at 317-327-3475, or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.

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(WASHINGTON) — Two people charged in a coordinated attack on police officers during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol now appear to be on the lam and a judge issued warrants for their arrest just as one of them was set to go on trial this week, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols unsealed bench warrants last week for Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson, both of Florida, who along with three others are accused of a series of assaults on law enforcement outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.

The FBI already had a $30,000 reward offer out for information leading to the arrest of Pollock’s brother, Jonathan Pollock, who was also charged in the indictment and disappeared months ago.

Court records show that Olivia Pollock failed to appear Monday for the start of her trial and Nichols moved to sever her from two other defendants in the case, who will now proceed with a bench trial.

After his arrest, Hutchinson was ordered to remain on home detention while Olivia Pollock was ordered to have a GPS monitor on her ankle.

An attorney for Olivia Pollock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hutchinson previously rejected the services of an attorney and moved to represent himself in his case.

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(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) — With nine feet of snow piled up outside her home in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California, Christine Foster said Monday that she and her 76-year-old father remain trapped in their three-story cabin where their supply of food is running low.

For 14 days, Foster said she, her dad and her dog, “Riley” have been hunkered down, close to their fireplace. She told ABC News that the main entrance to her unit is blocked by snow that has turned to ice.

“You can’t even shovel the stuff. It’s just rock hard ice. Shovel’s just easily break,” Foster said in a telephone interview from her home in Lake Arrowhead, which she said is only about an hour drive from downtown Los Angeles.

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 five feet at elevations as low as 5,000 feet.

Foster said her cabin sits at the 5,200-foot level, where more than 100 inches of snow has fallen in just the last week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared states of emergency in 13 counties across the state, including San Bernardino.

“We’re just not use to this kind of snowstorm,” Foster said. “It’s historic up here. We’ve never had this much snow in such a short time.”

She said that while the street in front of her cabin was plowed, the plowing created a 12-foot snow berm that his blocking her driveway, where her car is covered in snow.

Before the blizzard hit, Foster said she stocked up on groceries and bottled water. But on Monday, she said her supply was dwindling as she took inventory of her refrigerator and cupboards. She said she had three boxes of protein bars, two swordfish steaks, four lean pork chops, three frozen Lean Cuisine dinners and is down to tap water.

Adding to her anxiety, are chronic migraines she’s been suffering from since her medication ran out several days ago.

“None of us know when help is going to come to our front doors. That’s what’s scary,” Foster said.

She said her father, a cancer survivor, suffers from a heart arrhythmia. She said her 75-year-old neighbor is a diabetic and another neighbor has leukemia.

“I mean, how many people are going to be found dead in their cabins because help didn’t get to them,” Foster said.

Many residents in surrounding communities said they are enduring similar circumstances. They said they are in “survival mode.”

Some local residents were so desperate for help that a helicopter from ABC Los Angeles station KABC captured video footage on Friday of a large “Help us!!” sign written in the snow near Lake Gregory in the community of Crestline.

Officials said 80% of county roads were passable as of Monday. But residents complained that many roads had just one lane plowed.

Many residents said they managed to dig out and drive down the mountain for supplies only to be prevented from driving back up the mountain by the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said it is limiting access to highways to only emergency crews and food trucks delivering needed supplies.

“It sucks it really sucks. I just want to get to my house. It’s awful,” Eddie Loya of Crestline told KABC. “I have been here three years and I have never seen anything like this.”

Drew Adzovich of the community of Running Springs said he has been shoveling out for 11 days now and remains stuck at home.

“I’ve been putting myself out, putting in like three to four hours a day,” Adzovich told KABC. “That’s not the best thing I would say.”

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(MILWAUKEE, Wisc.) — A man has been charged in the death of Cashay Henderson, a Black transgender woman who was found shot dead in her Milwaukee, Wisconsin apartment on Feb. 26.

According to a criminal complaint, the Milwaukee Fire Department was responding to a fire in her apartment she was found unconscious and not breathing, with a gunshot wound. Henderson, 31, was discovered “after the fire was extinguished and the apartment was vented.”

An autopsy found that the cause of death was “was multiple gunshot wounds” to her head and neck, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide. Officials say the cause of the fire was arson.

Cordell M. Howze was charged on Sunday with “first degree reckless homicide, habitual criminality repeater, use of a dangerous weapon” as well as “possession of a firearm by a felon.”

If convicted of these charges, he could face up to 85 years in prison and could be fined up to $25,000, officials say.

“His arrest represents one step forward in delivering justice to Cashay and reassuring the community, especially the LGBTQIA+ community, that MPD is committed to serving all persons inclusively,” the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement. “The Milwaukee Police Department sends our condolences to Cashay’s family and loved ones, the LGBTQIA+ community, and all members of the public that were impacted by this tragic incident.”

Henderson’s family want her to be remembered as “a jokester,” “independent,” “unapologetic,” and someone who “walks to the beat of her own drum.”

Henderson, originally from Chicago, was a well-known figure in the Milwaukee LGBTQ+ community and was known for her advocacy.

“I’m proud of her. I’m proud that she made an impact on our community,” Levette Whitlock, Henderson’s cousin, told ABC News in an interview. “I’m proud people are standing up for her. I love that her community is coming and helping us.”

She is the fourth transgender person in the past year to be killed in the Milwaukee.

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(CUPERTINO, Calif.) — A mom of a Boy Scout died after a tree fell on her while she was hiking with the scouts in California this weekend, according to officials.

The accident occurred Sunday morning in Cupertino, about 45 miles south of San Francisco, the Santa Clara County Fire Department said.

The Boy Scouts said the victim was a parent participating in a hike, adding that no one else was hurt.

A Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District spokesperson said the woman died on the Stephen E. Abbors Trail in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve. The trail is now temporarily closed.

“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family, friends and community in the wake of this tragic event,” the spokesperson added.

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