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(LANSFORD, Penn.) — An explosive device was found in a checked piece of luggage at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley International Airport on Monday, according to a criminal complaint.

The passenger, Mark Muffley of Lansford, Pennsylvania, is now in custody, and an FBI agent testified that Muffley confirmed he was aware he had the explosive in his bag.

Muffley, 40, was set to take an Allegiant flight from eastern Pennsylvania to Florida’s Orlando Sanford International Airport.

The device hidden in the bag’s lining was a circular compound, about 3 inches in diameter, that had two fuses and powder concealed in wax paper and plastic wrap, according to the criminal complaint.

The “powder is suspected to be a mixture of flash powder and the dark granulars that are used in commercial grade fireworks,” the complaint said. “The black powder and flash powder are susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a significant risk to the aircraft and passengers.”

The bag also had “a can of butane, a lighter, a pipe with white powder residue, a wireless drill with cordless batteries, and two GFCI outlets taped together with black tape,” the complaint said.

Sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that based on a preliminary assessment, the device contained flammable, explosive components but was not operational and not constructed to go off in flight. The investigation into the suspect’s background is ongoing to better understand why he allegedly packed these materials, the sources said.

The device was detected during “routine screening,” when the suitcase triggered an alarm when it entered the baggage screening unit, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. While inspecting the baggage, a TSA officer “located an item inside the suitcase that appeared to be suspicious and was believed to possibly be a live explosive device,” the agency said.

An airport spokesperson said the suspicious package was discovered shortly after 11 a.m. Monday and the west side of the airport’s main terminal was shut down.

Muffley was paged over the airport’s public system to come to the security desk, the criminal complaint said. Five minutes later, security cameras showed Muffley leaving the airport.

The package was removed from the airport and the closed portion of the terminal reopened shortly before 2 p.m., the airport spokesperson said.

FBI and local law enforcement bomb technicians who responded to the scene determined that the item “was indeed a live explosive device,” TSA said.

Muffley was arrested at his home Monday night, the FBI said. He’s charged with possession of an explosive in an airport and possessing, or attempting to place, or attempting to have placed an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft.

Muffley made his first federal court appearance via videoconference Thursday for a probable cause and detention hearing.

FBI Special Agent Eddie Garcia testified that Muffley confirmed he was aware he had the explosive in his bag along with lithium batteries, butane and a small torch lighter, and he knew they were all prohibited.

Muffley’s public defender, Jonathan McDonald, argued the device was “just a firework in a bag.”

He claimed it was a commercial product and its only addition was a wick designed to burn slowly and that there was no way for it to explode unless someone took a lighter to one of the wicks. During cross examination, McDonald asked Garcia if the device was a firework. Garcia replied, “It’s an explosive. It may be a firework.”

Prosecutor Sherri Stephan argued that it doesn’t matter whether the device is a firework, because it meets the federal definition of an explosive and it posed a significant threat to the plane and passengers.

She also claimed that after the device was discovered and Muffley was called to airport security, Muffley allegedly called his girlfriend to pick him up from the airport. The prosecutor said that once Muffley was in her car, he changed his phone number in an attempt to not be tracked.

Stephan also said Muffley admitted to using drugs including methamphetamine and that the pipe found in his suitcase had meth residue in it. Stephan said he had several previous run-ins with the law, including having his probation and bail revoked on multiple occasions. Stephan said Muffley had “shown a pattern of not being able to follow the rules of release.”

Judge Pamela Carlos granted detention, remanding Muffley until his next hearing.

Muffley did not speak during the hearing. When prosecutors argued he was a danger to his community and a risk of flight, he mouthed, “No I’m not.”

ABC News’ Jason Volack, Will McDuffie and Trevor Ault contributed to this report.

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(LANSING, Mich.) — Weeks after eight students were shot on campus, three fatally, Michigan State University announced plans to install locks on the doors of more than 1,300 classrooms on campus. MSU aims to have all the locks installed by the beginning of the fall semester.

A gunman opened fire at two locations on Michigan State University’s East Lansing campus on Feb. 13. The suspect was identified as a 43-year-old man not affiliated with the university. None of the doors he entered were locked.

The university announced a number of new security measures in the wake of the shooting, saying the door locks are not the only changes to campus safety that will be made and that officials will ask for feedback from the community again.

MSU said it will add more cameras around campus in addition to the more than 2,000 cameras it already has in place. New cameras will be added to areas that do not have adequate coverage, including academic buildings and all Green Light phones that are already on campus.

Starting March 13, MSU’s main East Lansing campus will lock its buildings earlier every night, requiring key card access by students, faculty and staff from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Currently, buildings are locked at 11 p.m.

By the beginning of the next academic year, MSU will require all students and employees to undergo active violent intruder training. The training is currently voluntary.

Classroom doors were unlocked during the Parkland, Uvalde and MSU school shootings. The three school shootings show the challenges of securing public places that aren’t heavily defended.

Limiting entry points to school buildings, reinforcing main entrances and locking classroom doors are among the measures schools have adopted as part of safety plans.

A potentially deadly shooting at a California elementary school was averted in 2017 when the gunman left school grounds after apparently being unable to access classrooms, according to authorities.

A 2020 simulation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency found that locked classroom doors can lock have a significant impact on the outcome of an active school shooter event.

Classes have since resumed at MSU after the shooting.

The university said it would seek an internal and an external third-party review of its response to the Feb. 13 shooting.

“While we are grateful for the commendations and for our preparation, there is more we can do. Therefore, we will soon conduct an after-action evaluation of how our emergency personnel and university leaders responded to the crisis,” MSU said in a statement.

It plans to make the third-party report recommendations public.

“We will update the campus community as these safety improvements and enhancements roll out. Our first week back was an emotional one, but we hope you find strength in being back together,” MSU said.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.

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(WALTERBORO, S.C.) — A juror was removed from the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial Thursday morning after the judge learned she had been talking about the case to her friends.

Alex Murdaugh is accused of fatally shooting his wife and younger son at the family’s estate in June 2021. The disgraced South Carolina attorney was charged with their murders more than a year later.

Ahead of the defense’s closing argument on Thursday, Judge Clifton Newman informed the court that he had received a complaint from a member of the public indicating that the juror had “improper conversations with parties not associated with the case.”

The juror denied it when confronted about the issue in the chambers at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro on Tuesday, he said. Three witnesses were interviewed on Wednesday, which revealed that the juror had offered her opinion on the evidence presented in the trial to at least three people, the judge said.

“In order to preserve the integrity of the process and the interests of both the state and the defense in a fair trial, that juror will be removed and replaced by another juror,” Newman told the court.

Both the state and the defense were in agreement with the order.

Newman informed the juror that he concluded she had discussed the case “intentionally or unintentionally” with people not on the jury despite his order not to, and that he was required to remove her from the jury.

The judge described her as a “great juror” who seemed “attentive to the case and performed well” and thanked her for her service.

“I’m sure that with all the time you’ve invested in it, you probably hate not to continue,” Newman said. “I’m not suggesting that you intentionally did anything wrong, but that in order to preserve the integrity of the process and in fairness to all the parties involved, we’re going to replace you with one of the other jurors.”

A new juror was sworn in before the defense began delivering their closing argument.

The trial, which is now in its sixth week, now has only one of its initial six alternate jurors remaining as the jury will soon prepare for deliberations. Several jurors have been removed due to illness since the start of the trial.

The latest shakeup comes a day after the jurors traveled to the scene of the crime — the 1,772-acre hunting estate Moselle in Islandton — to get a sense of the space where the killings took place.

Margaret Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s estate. Alex Murdaugh, 54, has repeatedly denied killing them and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) — Ten people were hospitalized after a Spirit Airlines plane bound for Orlando, Florida, made an emergency landing in Jacksonville due to a fire onboard, according to officials.

Spirit Airlines Flight 259 landed at Jacksonville International Airport around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, after the crew reported a battery on fire in an overhead bin.

The plane landed without incident and pulled up to the terminal before fire rescue teams went aboard the flight, Jacksonville Fire Rescue Capt. Eric Prosswimmer told reporters.

When emergency responders were able to board the plane, they discovered the fire in the overhead compartment had been caused by a battery. The flight crew on the plane had been able to put out the fire, but there was still smoke in the cockpit, according to Prosswimmer.

“The battery, I don’t know where it came from, but it had started a fire. The crew was very intelligent; they put it in a galley in a bucket of water,” Prosswimmer said.

The Airbus A320 departed Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and was headed to Orlando International Airport.

Shortly after landing, one passenger was not feeling well. They were examined by rescue teams before being transferred to the hospital, according to Prosswimmer.

At around 6 p.m., more crew members and passengers began to feel ill and fire rescue teams ended up transporting a total of 10 patients, all with non-life-threatening conditions, to the hospital, according to Prosswimmer.

The fire was caused by a lithium ion battery, officials said.

A retired fireman on board was able to help flight crew put out the fire, according to a passenger.

“There was a retired fireman that jumped up and flight crew came in and they tried putting water on it and another guy went and got a bucket because I think the fireman reached in and grabbed it and they got it put out, but it took about 20 minutes,” passenger Kerri Arakawa told Jacksonville ABC affiliate WJXX.

Arakawa said smoke had filled the cabin, but that the captain was able to land the plane quickly.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the incident.

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(CHICAGO) — A Chicago police officer has been shot and killed while responding to a call about a person with a firearm, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The officer was shot multiple times Wednesday while exchanging gunfire with a suspect, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said during a news conference.

The slain officer, identified as Andres Vasquez-Lasso, “died while protecting Chicago and its people,” the department tweeted.

He was on the force for five years, Brown said.

The suspect, who police say is an 18-year-old, was shot in the head and is critically injured, Brown said.

“Every officer in this police department, and for that matter, every officer in this country is grieving today,” Brown said.

“If you see an officer tonight, or the next day, or the day after that, thank them for their service,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot added.

The fatal shooting came hours after Brown announced he would be resigning from the police department.

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(NEW YORK) — When the suspect in the University of Idaho murders was taken into custody, a knife and a Glock 22 gun were among the items seized by law enforcement at his family home, according to a newly released search warrant.

Bryan Kohberger was arrested in his home state of Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022, after a six-week search for a suspect in the gruesome quadruple slaying.

Also among the items seized at his family’s Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, home on the day of his arrest were a pocket knife, a phone, computers, black face masks, several pairs of black gloves, black hats, a black mask, dark clothing and dark boots.

One of the two roommates who survived told police she saw a man in black clothes and a mask walking past her in the house where the four murders took place.

Kohberger is accused of stabbing to death roommates Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, in the girls’ off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in the criminal justice program at nearby Washington State University. A criminal psychology book was also seized from his family’s home.

In December, Kohberger and his father drove from Washington to Pennsylvania for the holidays. The documents released Thursday also show the seats, gas and brake pedals and dozens of other items were taken from the white Hyundai they drove across the country, which police also placed at the crime scene on the night of the slayings.

Kohberger, who is in custody in Idaho, has not yet entered a plea.

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(STANTON COUNTY, Neb.) — A Nebraska Sheriff’s office cited two men for allegedly hunting a bald eagle with the intention of cooking and eating the national bird.

The Stanton County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle at the Wood Duck Recreation Area in Stanton County in eastern Nebraska at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Law enforcement found two men – Ramiro Hernandez-Tziquin, 20 and Domingo Zetino-Hernandez, 20 – in possession of a dead bald eagle.

The two men, who live in Norfolk, Nebraska but are Honduran nationals, said they had not only shot and killed the bird but also intended to cook and eat the eagle, authorities said.

The Sheriff’s office cited both men for unlawful possession of the eagle, and Hernandez-Tziquin was also charged for not having a driver’s license.

“More serious charges are possible as the investigation into the unlawful killing continues,” a statement from Stanton County Sheriff’s Office said. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act federally prohibits killing a bald eagle.

Nebraska Game and Parks took custody of the rifle used to kill the eagle as well as the bird’s carcass.

While the number of bald eagles severely declined through the 20th century and were classified as federally endangered in 1978, the species made a comeback both nationally and in Nebraska.

The number of active nests has increased every year since 1991 in Nebraska according to Nebraska Game and Parks. In 2012, the department surveyed over 100 active nests throughout the state, including over 990 bald eagles.

It is unclear if the men know the bird they killed was a bald eagle.

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(NEW YORK) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in more than a dozen counties as the typically warm state digs out from rare snowstorms.

Wednesday’s emergency proclamation in the counties of Amador, Kern, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Nevada, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Sonoma and Tulare will free up state resources to support the disaster response and relief. The governor also activated the California National Guard to be ready to support the operations.

A series of severe winter storms struck the West Coast over the last week, burying Southern California’s mountain communities under mounds of snow and stranding thousands of residents. Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains and Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains, both in California’s San Bernardino County, accumulated 106 inches of snow. Since Saturday, Soda Springs in California’s Nevada County has received 114 inches of snow, or 9.5 feet.

Over the past week, Palisade Tahoe ski resort in California’s Placer County in the Sierra Nevada mountain range got a whopping 146 inches snow, or more than 12 feet. That brings the cumulative total for the season to 500 inches, or nearly 42 feet, making it the snowiest October through February period since 1970. Palisade Tahoe, the largest skiing complex in the Lake Tahoe region, was shut down on Tuesday due to the amount of snowfall. Other ski resorts in the area have also had to temporarily close.

The latest storm system to hit the West Coast was expected to move out of the region on Thursday and bring severe weather across the South. More than 90 million people across 36 states were on alert for heavy snow, avalanches, flash flooding, strong winds and tornadoes. The cities of Dallas, Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Little Rock, Arkansas, were in the storm’s forecasted path for Thursday.

The system is expected to move into the Southeast and up to the Ohio Valley region on Friday, hitting a number major cities along the way such as Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Lexington, Kentucky. The main threat will be damaging winds and possibly several tornadoes.

Meanwhile, heavy rain could trigger flash flooding from Oklahoma to Ohio, with local rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches.

The same system could also bring the biggest snowstorm of the season to Chicago on Friday. The city in Illinois could get more than 6 inches of snow.

The whiteout is forecast to spread into the Northeast on Friday evening, bringing a wintry mix from New York City to Boston, with heavy snow more inland from upstate New York to Maine. Locally, parts of the inland Northeast could see more than 6 inches of snow.

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(NEW YORK) — A cross-country storm that first brought blizzard conditions to the West is now taking aim on the Heartland and the South, where a dangerous severe weather outbreak is expected on Thursday.

Cities in the in the bull’s-eye Thursday afternoon and evening are Dallas, Shreveport, Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas. The storms will also move through Memphis Tennessee; Austin, Texas and Houston.

The forecast calls for intense tornadoes, huge hail and powerful winds topping 75 mph.

On Friday, the damaging winds and tornadoes will move into the Southeast and up to the Ohio Valley.

Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee and Lexington, Kentucky, will be in the bull’s-eye.

Very heavy rain — up to 5 inches — is also possible with these severe storms. Flash flooding is a threat from Oklahoma to Ohio.

To the north, that same system could bring the biggest snowstorm of the season to Chicago on Friday. More than 6 inches of snow is possible in the Windy City.

Friday evening, the heavy snow will spread into the Northeast, bringing a wintry mix to the Interstate 95 corridor from New York City to Boston. Heavy snow — possibly topping 1 foot — is forecast for the inland Northeast from upstate New York to Maine.

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(NEW YORK) — Susan Zimmerman was in the middle of dinner service aboard Lufthansa Flight 469 when turbulence hit.

“It was all of a sudden we lifted up, and then we started dropping down really fast. It felt like about five seconds of freefall,” she said.

The Germany-bound flight to Frankfurt landed at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport at 9:10 p.m. after the Airbus A330 experienced “severe turbulence” 37,000 feet above Tennessee, according to Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration. Seven people aboard the flight were sent to the hospital after the incident.

“While it was happening, the plates were up, and the ceiling glass was up in the ceiling,” Zimmerman said. “My bag was flown back behind me, and it was kind of like you’re in slow motion.”

According to Flight Aware, the flight descended roughly 10,000 feet over 10 minutes, including a one-minute, 1,000-foot drop at one point.

Zimmerman, who is pregnant, said in those intense moments, her mind went towards her unborn daughter and husband, thinking, “God, just let me out of this.”

“I’m five months pregnant, so I was honestly thinking I’m never going to meet my daughter,” she said. “I was trying to just keep myself calm so as to not put any further undue stress on her.”

After the sudden turbulence, she described the scene as if “a food fight had erupted in the plane,” with broken glassware, trays, and food everywhere following the disrupted dinner service.

She added that passengers toward the back of the plane appeared to be impacted by the turbulence more severely, as well as the flight crew who were in the middle of serving dinner.

She said the flight experienced intermittent turbulence after the main drop before stabilizing and eventually landing at Dulles.

“Once we were passed the storm, there was nothing else that we had to really worry about,” she said.

Once the turbulence subsided, the flight crew checked on the passengers multiple times, eventually carrying one injured woman to the front of the plane before landing, according to Zimmerman.

Roughly 15 paramedics were waiting at the jet bridge, according to Zimmerman. About six boarded the plane to assist the injured passengers before the passengers fully deplaned.

Wednesday’s incident follows a string of injuries related to flights that have hit severe turbulence.

On Dec. 18, 20 passengers were injured on a Hawaiian Airlines flight about 30 minutes from Honolulu. Seven suffered serious injuries. Five passengers were hospitalized the next day when a United Airlines flight to Houston hit turbulence. At least three passengers were injured on Feb. 9 when a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tampa, Florida hit turbulence.

“You think you’re never going to be in a quote-unquote ‘Final Destination’ situation,” Zimmerman said. “And then here you are.”

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