(CHICAGO) — Students at a Chicago high school staged a classroom walkout Monday afternoon to protest gun violence just days after a shooting near their campus left two teenagers dead and two others wounded.
Students at Benito Juarez Community Academy in the Pilsen neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, left their classrooms and gathered around a makeshift memorial where Friday’s shooting occurred. The students called on city leaders to bolster security on their campus and crack down on gangs.
Many of the students released balloons into the air as they held a vigil for the victims.
“I want Benito Juarez to be safer because, honestly, I felt like this situation wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t a lot of gang activity around the school,” one of the student protest organizers, Kiya, told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV. “It’s scary for people like me, who are not gang-affiliated, that have to go to school every day and then wonder, ‘Dang, am I going to get shot?'”
Gunfire erupted around 2:30 p.m. Friday just outside the Benito Juarez campus, police said. Killed in the shooting were 15-year-old Brandon Perez, a Benito Juarez student, and his friend, 14-year-old Nathan Billegas, a freshman at Chicago Bulls College Prep, family members told WLS. Chicago police said both victims were shot in the head.
Two other teenagers, a 15-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl, were hit by gunfire and are expected to fully recover, according to police.
During a news conference Friday evening, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said the shooting occurred just as school was being dismissed for the day in staggered phases.
No arrests have been announced in the case.
“We are conducting a pretty aggressive investigation and all of our resources are being dedicated to insure that we bring these people to justice that caused this,” Brown said.
Police released a surveillance image Saturday of a person they believe was involved in the shooting, running away from the scene.
“I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re scared to come to school or anything, like, that’s why I’m doing it,” Kiya said of the planned classroom walkout. “I’m doing it for other schools, too, that have to go through this.”
Overall, homicides in Chicago are down 15% from 2021 and shooting incidents have also fallen 20% from a year ago, according to the latest Chicago police crime statistics.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — About 10,000 tips have been submitted so far in the unsolved murders of four University of Idaho students, police said Monday, but investigators still don’t have a suspect.
Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were all stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus house in Moscow in the early hours of Nov. 13.
Investigators are still combing through “hours and hours of digital content,” including surveillance videos submitted by residents and business owners, Moscow police said in a statement Friday.
“There is a massive amount of digital content to review with a robust team dedicated to handling digital submissions,” police said. “Other members of the investigation team are dedicated specifically to email tips, while another team is assigned to Tip Line calls.”
Among the videos under review is this surveillance video from a Moscow gas station that shows a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra near the victims’ house when the crimes occurred.
Authorities are “confident” that the person or persons in the Hyundai Elantra has “information that is critical” to the case, Moscow police Capt. Roger Lanier said last week.
“We have many tips that have come in on the 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said in a video Monday. “But what we’re asking is, anybody else who still hasn’t sent in a tip, if you own one or if you know someone who was driving one the day before [the crimes] or the day after, please send that tip in.”
Police have released this white Hyundai Elantra stock photo.
Police said the investigation won’t slow down over the university’s winter break.
Much of the case remains a mystery, including a motive and how two other roommates survived.
The surviving roommates, who police said are not suspects, were at the house and likely slept through the murders, according to police. They were on the ground floor while the four victims were on the second and third floors.
Lanier said last week that police “do have a lot of information” in the case that they’re choosing not to release to the public.
“We’re not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation,” he said in a video statement.
Authorities urge anyone with information to upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.
(EL PASO, Texas) — The Texas National Guard has deployed a “contingency border force” of over 400 personnel to El Paso, TX, as the city continues to deal with a surge of asylum-seekers arriving at the border.
The Texas Military Department said the deployment is part of Governor Abbott’s “enhanced border security effort” and will include a Security Response Force comprised of “elements” from the 606th Military Police Battalion “trained in civil disturbance operations and mass migration response.”
A spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that these types of Security Response Forces are also sometimes dispatched to large protests, like those that rattled the country after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, MN.
“The equipping of riot shields would be mission dependent and based on the situation in their area of operation,” the spokesperson said.
The move came hours before Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary stay on an order that would end Title 42, a Trump-era health policy used over 2.4 million times to expel and prevent migrants from requesting asylum in the United States, citing the risk of COVID-19 spread.
In November, a U.S. district judge ruled that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered it to end. A coalition of 19 states appealed that judge’s decision, now the Supreme Court will weigh that appeal, but it’s unclear when their final ruling might come.
El Paso saw a sharp increase of asylum-seekers in recent days leading up to the Title 42 deadline, with U.S. Border Patrol making over 2,200 apprehensions on average per day this month.
“Texas National Guard is increasing its posture along the border in response to high levels of illegal border crossings over the past week and the pending expiration of Title 42. The end of Title 42 is expected to lead to a massive influx of illegal immigrants, allowing criminals to further exploit gaps while federal authorities are inundated with migrant processing,” the Texas Military Department said in a statement before the stay was issued.
The Security Response Force is used to “safeguard the border and repel and turn-back” some immigrants, TMD said, adding that a second one will be on standby and ready to deploy to El Paso, or other parts of the border. The deployment is also part of a statewide effort to stem the flow of immigrants attempting to come into the country.
Texas Gov. Abbott is among the leaders that joined the appeal to prevent Title 42 from ending.
“If the courts do not intervene and put a halt to the removal of Title 42, it’s gonna be total chaos,” Abbott told ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz before the stay was issued.
(LOS ANGELES) — A Los Angeles jury has found disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of three of seven counts, including one count of rape of Jane Doe 1, in his Los Angeles sexual assault trial.
The jury found Weinstein not guilty of one count — sexual battery by restraint of Jane Doe 3 — and it was hung on three counts, including forcible rape of Jane Doe 4. The jury will return Tuesday to hear arguments on special findings.
Weinstein, who is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape, was accused by four women of assaulting them in hotels between 2004 and 2013. He faced two counts of rape and five counts of sexual assault.
The 70-year-old former movie executive pleaded not guilty and has said all of the encounters were consensual.
Jane Doe 1’s lawyer, Dave Ring, said in a statement, “No victim should have to endure what Jane Doe 1 did the past five years after she came forward. Weinstein and his lawyers did everything they could to intimidate her and discredit her, and they failed miserably. Jane Doe 1’s life has been incredibly difficult since she revealed the rape in 2017; but she persevered and brought Weinstein down. We are all very proud of her.”
In a separate statement, Jane Doe 1 said, in part, “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did.”
“I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime,” she added.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón thanked the survivors in a statement following the verdict, saying, in part, “I stand in awe of their fearlessness. They deserve better than what the system has given them.”
“I also want to thank the jurors for their service during this lengthy trial and for examining all of the evidence carefully,” he said. “I am of course disappointed that the jury was split on some of the counts, but hope its partial verdict brings at least some measure of justice to the victims.”
Weinstein initially faced 11 counts in the trial, but four charges relating to Jane Doe No. 5, including two counts of forcible rape and two counts of forcible oral copulation, were dropped by the prosecution.
The four women all testified during the trial, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Siebel Newsom was referred to as Jane Doe No. 4 during the trial, but she has been publicly identified by her lawyer.
Over more than two hours of testimony, beginning Nov. 10, Siebel Newsom often broke down recalling the 2005 encounter with Weinstein at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills in which she said she was raped. Siebel Newsom, then an aspiring actress and currently a documentary filmmaker, said she accepted an invitation to a meeting with the producer at his hotel suite because “you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein.”
“I was so violated and I don’t know how that happened,” Siebel Newsom testified about how she felt after the incident. “I didn’t see the clues and I didn’t know how to escape.”
Prior to the trial, Seibel Newsom’s lawyer, Beth Fegan, said of her client’s testimony: “Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap. She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women. Please respect her choice to not discuss this matter outside of the courtroom.”
The trial in Los Angeles came 2 1/2 years after Weinstein was found guilty of similar crimes in New York City, a landmark decision after the so-called #MeToo movement, in which powerful men were exposed for sexual misconduct, began largely around bombshell reports about the Miramax founder’s behavior in The New York Times and The New Yorker in fall 2017.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Mark Werksman, said in opening arguments during his LA trial that each allegation was a “weak and unsubstantiated trickle that will evaporate upon your close scrutiny.”
“The evidence in this case is based upon emotion, not facts,” Werksman said. “You will learn that the allegations can be traced directly to a movement called the #MeToo movement.”
Weinstein did not testify during the trial.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said the witnesses testified “credibly,” even under intense cross-examination, and that the defense has the difficult task of arguing that every single woman who took the stand in the case is lying.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson told the jury in his closing argument that the evidence was “smoke and mirrors” and accused the women who testified of being “fame and fortune seekers.”
(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday temporarily stopped the expiration of the immigration restriction Title 42, which was scheduled to lift on Wednesday, after 19 states filed an appeal.
Roberts’ brief order did not discuss the merits of the case. The administrative stay gives the justices enough time to consider the states’ appeal, given the looming deadline for Title 42 to end.
Roberts ordered responses to his order to be filed by Tuesday.
The states had asked the Supreme Court to intervene and keep Title 42 in place — contending that not doing so “will cause a crisis of unprecedented proportions at the border.”
“Getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement. “Unlawful crossings are estimated to surge from 7,000 per day to as many as 18,000.”
The policy known as Title 42 started in 2020, under President Donald Trump, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since been used to expel migrants from the southern border more than 2.4 million times on the basis of public health concerns.
Due to the rapid nature of the expulsions, which usually take place in a matter of hours, access to asylum and other humanitarian protections is sharply curtailed.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates have been waging a legal battle against the order, claiming it violates federal and international law.
In Monday’s application for a stay, the states, which are mostly Republican-led, again argued that lifting Title 42 will create an influx of unauthorized migrants who will unduly burden government services like law enforcement, education and health care.
Border Patrol made a record 2.2 million apprehensions along the southern border this past fiscal year. Meanwhile, the Biden administration removed 1.4 million people under both Title 42 and the standard immigration authority, Title 8.
The states also maintained that the federal government is essentially trying to have it both ways on the controversial policy — what the states call “collusion and contradiction” — because the government first defended Title 42 earlier in the litigation and then switched sides and supported the lower court decision to strike it down.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Title 42 was “arbitrary and capricious” and that its public health impact was minimal.
Sullivan set a Wednesday deadline to end the protocols.
A federal appeals court on Friday denied the states’ effort to preserve Title 42.
The states sought a stay from Roberts, who oversees the appellate circuit handling the case, as well as for the full Supreme Court to hear their appeal while Title 42 remains in place. The justices could agree to hear the appeal by granting a writ of certiorari.
There is no set timeline for this.
The appellate ruling last week was unanimous — and procedural. The lower court judges found that the states became involved too late in the process, given their purported alarm.
“In this case, the inordinate and unexplained untimeliness of the States’ motion to intervene on appeal weighs decisively against intervention,” the panel wrote, noting that the lawsuit had been pending for almost two years.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, ahead of the temporary stay, that the administration was still preparing to end the Title 42 protocols as ordered.
“What I can tell you is we are required by a court order to lift Title 42. That’s Dec. 21. And we’re going to comply with that,” she said.
In a statement last week, after the appeals court ruled against the states, White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said that the administration “will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws and work to expand legal pathways for migration while discouraging disorderly and unsafe migration.”
“To be clear: the lifting of the Title 42 public health order does not mean the border is open,” Hasan said then. “Anyone who suggests otherwise is doing the work of smugglers spreading misinformation to make a quick buck off of vulnerable migrants.”
In a statement on Monday following the stay, the Department of Homeland Security said, in part: “The Title 42 public health order will remain in effect at this time and individuals who attempt to enter the United States unlawfully will continue to be expelled to Mexico.
“While this stage of the litigation proceeds, we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when the Title 42 public health order lifts.”
The department urged Congress to approve more funding for the border.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(DALLAS) — A jury began deliberating the sentence Monday for former police officer Aaron Dean after he was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2019 shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson.
The prosecution and defense rested their cases in the sentencing phase Friday and delivered closing statements early Monday.
The same jury decided to convict Dean on Thursday for manslaughter as opposed to a harsher murder charge during roughly 13 hours of deliberations. Manslaughter is a second-degree felony, according to the Texas penal code. It’s punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Dean psychologist called as witness
The prosecution called on its first witnesses in the sentencing phase of the trial Friday morning.
Kyle Clayton, the psychologist who conducted a pre-employment psychological evaluation on Dean back in March 2017, took to the stand to speak about the results of the evaluation.
“There were indications from the [evaluation] of grandiosity and some interpersonal difficulties, including that this person would likely to be seen as domineering or over-controlling,” Clayton said Friday during sentencing testimony.
“These profile types tend to be those who are very concerned with sort of the facade of superiority and not appearing passive or weak in any way,” he added.
Clayton testified Friday he asked Dean to rank himself on a scale from zero to 10, with 10 meaning he had zero flaws.
Dean ranked himself as a nine, Clayton said, adding Dean said he’d be a 10 “if not for what he categorized as some stupid things that he had done in the past to — as he described it — piss people off.”
“He was not psychologically suitable to be a Fort Worth police officer,” Clayton testified.
Assault accusation against Dean
The prosecution brought a woman who accused Dean of assault in 2004 to testify in front of the jury.
She spoke about physical altercations between her and Dean and the verbal report and written statements she gave to University of Texas at Arlington police.
Jefferson’s brother speaks out
Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother, said his younger sister was like his “best friend.”
“Being the only boy in the family … she was a tomboy, she was the one who, if I was playing basketball, she was playing with me, and if I was hanging out my friends, she was playing with me,” Carr said. “Video games, I’m pretty sure I’m the reason she started playing them.”
Jefferson had been staying at her mother’s home to help take care of her mother’s health and her own, according to Carr.
Defense character witnesses begin
The defense called on Tim Foster, who attended Dean’s church for several years.
He described Dean’s work with the church, including directing and putting together a musical program every year for the holiday season.
Foster described Dean as “dependable, upright, noble” and a “humble servant.”
Another churchgoer and friend of Dean’s family who has known him for more than 20 years testified that Dean is “a great guy.”
“He led by example,” the family friend said. “Of course, he’s been raised to be that way.”
Dean’s mother Donna told the jury Dean became an officer to “make a difference in people’s lives and wanted to help people.”
Officer, detective both take the stand
Christina Livingston, a court officer for the Tarrant County probation office, was also called by the defense. She outlined the restrictions and terms of probation that may be considered by the jury in Dean’s sentencing.
Fort Worth Detective Thomas Dugan, who was one of Dean’s field training officers several years ago, also took the stand Friday.
Dugan testified that Dean was “willing to learn and wanting to learn.” He said he was open to corrections in his training.
The fatal night
Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by Dean, a white police officer, in her Fort Worth, Texas, home on Oct. 12, 2019.
Dean and another officer responded to a nonemergency call to check on Jefferson’s home around 2:30 a.m. because a door was left open to the house.
Dean did not park near the home, knock at the door or announce police presence at any time while on the scene, according to body camera footage and Dean’s testimony during the trial.
Dean testified that he suspected a burglary was in progress due to the messiness inside the home when he peered through an open door. When Dean entered the backyard, body camera footage showed Dean looking into one of the windows of the home.
Jefferson and her young nephew Zion were playing video games when they heard a noise, according to Zion’s testimony. Zion said his aunt had left the door open because they burned hamburgers earlier in the night and were airing out the smoke.
Jefferson grabbed her gun from her purse before approaching the window, Zion testified. Police officials have said Jefferson was within her rights to protect herself.
Dean’s lawyers argued during the trial that he was confronted by deadly force when he saw Jefferson with the gun and was within his right to respond with deadly force. However, Dean admitted on the stand that his actions constituted “bad police work.”
In body camera footage, Dean can be heard shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and firing one shot through the window, killing Jefferson. According to a forensics video expert, there was half a second between his commands and when he shot Jefferson.
Dean resigned from the police department before his arrest. Fort Worth Chief of Police Ed Kraus has said Dean was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for nine people who were aboard a capsized boat off the coast of Florida.
The Coast Guard was alerted to the accident after a good Samaritan rescued a survivor near Lake Worth, Florida, who reported that he and nine others set sail from Cuba on Dec. 10, the Coast Guard’s Southeast branch tweeted Monday morning.
#BreakingNews@USCG crews are searching for 9 people in the water after a good Sam rescued a person Sunday, at approx 3:30 p.m. off Lake Worth Beach. The survivor reported he and 9 others left Cuba on Dec. 10, & the vessel capsized early Sunday morning. #SAR@USEmbCubapic.twitter.com/jKbaZlU9Dd
(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is warning that the city is expected to receive over 1,000 asylum-seekers each week, with Title 42 set to be lifted on Wednesday.
Although he does not say what authority has warned of the incoming surge of migrants, he said that NYC would see more people entering the shelter system as early as Sunday.
“The flow of asylum-seekers to New York City has slowed in recent months, but the tool that the federal government has used to manage those coming over the border is set to expire this week, and we have been told in no uncertain terms that, beginning today, we should expect an influx of buses coming from the border and that more than 1,000 additional asylum-seekers will arrive in New York City every week,” Adams said in a statement.
Title 42 is a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that “allows the government to prevent the introduction of individuals during certain public health emergencies,” Olga Byrne, the immigration director at the International Rescue Committee, told ABC News last week.
Adams has called on the state and federal government for funding to help house asylum-seekers, saying that NYC has managed the flow and influx of seekers “entirely on its own.”
Since April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused over 14,000 migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to Democrat-led cities across the country, including NYC, citing a need to secure the border after claiming the Biden administration isn’t doing so.
In September, Adams called for “coordination” with the federal government and Republican governors over the busing and flying of migrants to the city, saying that NYC’s system was “nearing its breaking point.”
“We are in urgent need for help, and it’s time for our state and federal partners to act — especially those in Congress who refuse to provide the financial resources or issue temporary work authorizations necessary for these individuals to live properly,” Adams said in a press release Sunday.
The mayor also warned that the shelter system is currently full and are “nearly out of money, staff, and space.”
“Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain,” Adams said.
(COHASSET, Mass.) — A man allegedly wielded a gas-powered chainsaw as he attempted to storm a Massachusetts police station on Sunday afternoon, according to the Cohasset Police Department.
He then allegedly held two children hostage at a nearby home, according to police.
Cohasset Police said Brien Buckley, 35, was arrested at around 9 p.m. on Sunday night after an hours-long standoff with a SWAT team, hostage negotiators and multiple local police forces.
Buckley was arrested on multiple child engagement and property damage charges, as well as resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and other charges, police said. He’s being held without bail, according to officials.
Buckley allegedly drove onto the lawn of the Cohasset Police Department’s headquarters at about 2:30 p.m. before entering the lobby “revving” a gas-powered chainsaw, according to a statement. A civilian desk assistant contacted officers, as Buckley attempted to use the saw to enter a restricted area of the police station, officials said.
“He attempted to cut through the security door of the lobby of the police station,” Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said during a press conference.
Quigley noted that the man was previously “known to the department.”
According to police, Buckley fled the station to a residence in Cohasset where he allegedly barricaded himself inside with two small children.
“There are two young children in the house under five years of age,” Quigley said while the situation was ongoing.
At one point, Buckley allegedly dangled the children from a second-story window while yelling at officers on the ground, according to the release.
After attempts to de-escalate the situation failed, law enforcement made the decision to forcibly enter the home due to a “clear and present danger to the children,” officials said. Police said they used a taser to take Buckley into custody. The children were removed from the home by officers, according to the release.
From roughly 3:40 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., the Cohasset police instituted a shelter-in-place order for a quarter-mile radius from the home in which Buckley was barricaded.
The two children were reunited with their mother and grandfather at the scene, and Buckley was detained without bail after originally being transported to a local hospital, police said.
Prosecutors will arraign Buckley on Monday at Quincy District Court, according to police.
(NEW YORK) — The winter solstice is days away, but frigid temperatures are already here for much of the U.S.
Many regions have been blanketed in snow after a winter storm system took more than a week to sweep across a large portion of the country from west to east, bringing deadly tornadoes to the South and blizzard-like conditions in other parts of the country.
The major storm brought between 4 feet and 6 feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, with 2 inches to 4 inches of flooding rain on the West Coast.
Another 4 feet of snow was dumped in the northern Plains, with whiteout conditions and 40 mph winds, as well as snow drifts measuring up to 8 feet.
The Northeast experienced a nor-easter, with up to 2 feet of snow falling in some regions and up to 2 inches of rain closer to the coast.
Snow was still falling Sunday morning in northern Maine — totaling up to an additional 6 inches to 12 inches in some spots. The system is expected to have fully exited into the Atlantic Ocean by Sunday night.
In its wake are chilly conditions across much of the U.S. in the week leading up to Christmas.
It is already cold across the northern plains, but temperatures will continue to drop as the week progresses. By Friday, lows across the Dakotas and Minnesota may be as low as -40 Fahrenheit, with wind chills around -50 degrees.
Even as far south as Texas, temperatures may drop below zero by Friday morning, which could strain the state’s energy grid.
This type of weather pattern can often produce a strong storm along the East Coast, which is expected toward the end of the week and heading into Christmas Eve.
