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(PIKEVILLE, Ky.) — A man accused of fatally shooting three Kentucky law enforcement officers in an ambush last year has died while in custody awaiting trial for murder, authorities said.

The suspect, Lance Storz, died from an apparent suicide, prosecutors said.

Storz was being held in Pike County Detention Center without bail on 20 counts, including three counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, in connection with the June 2022 mass shooting at his home in Floyd County.

He was found unresponsive around 6:37 a.m. local time Tuesday and was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Pikeville Police said.

The death is under investigation by Pikeville Police Department, Kentucky State Police and Pike County Coroner’s Office.

Autopsy results are pending, a Pikeville Police spokesperson told ABC News Wednesday.

The Pike County Detention Center told ABC News it is awaiting an update on the police investigation before issuing a statement.

ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Storz’s attorney to a message seeking comment.

Storz was accused of fatally shooting three officers and a police K-9, as well as injuring several others during a violent ambush at his home in Allen. A barricaded shootout occurred after Floyd County sheriff’s deputies arrived to serve an emergency protective order in a domestic violence case, authorities said. Storz was armed with a rifle, according to an arrest citation.

Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt said in the wake of the shooting that it seemed planned.

The slain officers were Floyd County Deputy William Petry, Prestonsburg Police Capt. Ralph Frasure and Prestonsburg Police canine handler Jacob Chaffins.

Storz had pleaded not guilty in the case and was next scheduled to appear in court on March 23 for a pretrial conference, online court records show.

Brent Turner, the commonwealth attorney for Floyd County whose office was prosecuting the case, said in a statement to ABC News that had it gone to trial, they would have been seeking the death penalty, though added it is unlikely it would have been carried out if Storz had been convicted.

“So the only way he would ever have been put to death was if he did it himself and it appears that he has done that,” Turner said in a statement.

“I know the victims’ families will have mixed emotions and may, on some level, feel cheated by this. But in the end it will probably be to their benefit,” the statement continued. “Lance Storz is gone from this earth and the families will not be forced to endure a painful trial and the decades of appeals and uncertainty that come with a death sentence had he received one.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The CEO of Norfolk Southern, the rail company responsible for the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, has agreed to appear before a Senate committee next week.

Alan Shaw will appear before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee during a March 9 hearing.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern said Shaw told the committee “that he will appear voluntarily …. We continue to engage in discussions with Members of Congress and other committees about additional requests to testify, while balancing his commitments to the remediation process and the community.”

“Alan will share what he knows about the incident,” the spokesperson continued. “As the [National Transportation Safety Board] has noted, there are also industry-wide issues, and we would expect that other industry participants will also be involved in future hearings. The rail industry needs to learn as much as it can from East Palestine, as can the owners of the rail cars.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had called for Shaw to appear for a hearing during floor remarks on Monday.

“The American people should hear from Norfolk Southern CEO precisely why they thought it was a good idea to spend years lobbying to loosen regulations designed to prevent accidents like this,” Schumer said. “And I especially want to hear why Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3 billion in profits last year, prioritized billions in stock buybacks instead of putting that money towards safety and towards their workers.”

The hearing has not yet been formally noticed by the committee, but other witnesses are expected.

The freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed on Feb. 3 near East Palestine, sending toxic chemicals into the air, soil and creeks in the area. The derailment has caused concerns for residents as well as increased scrutiny of railway regulations and calls for reform.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown and Ohio Republican J.D. Vance, introduced legislation on Wednesday looking to regulate the railroad industry.

Among the proposals in the legislation are measures to enhance safety precautions for trains carrying hazardous material, like requiring that wheels of trains carrying hazardous materials be scanned for heat every 10 miles; mandating a two-person crew aboard all trains; and increasing the fines that the Department of Transportation can levy against corporations for breaking rules.

“Through this legislation, Congress has a real opportunity to ensure that what happened in East Palestine will never happen again,” Vance said in a statement. “We owe every American the peace of mind that their community is protected from a catastrophe of this kind.”

The Norfolk Southern spokesperson said in their statement, of proposed rail legislation, “The rail industry needs to learn as much as we can from East Palestine. Norfolk Southern has committed to working with industry to develop practices and technologies that could help prevent an incident like this in the future. This incident requires a broad industry response, and we will also work with the owners of the rail cars on the integrity and safety of the equipment we use.”

This is the first major legislative foray for Vance, Ohio’s freshman senator. The bill boasts an impressive group of bipartisan co-sponsors, including Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

It’s not yet clear whether the legislation will have the necessary 60 votes to clear the Senate, but the bipartisan group of co-sponsors suggests it’ll have more than a fighting chance.

“These commonsense bipartisan safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again,” Brown said in a statement.

In floor remarks Wednesday, Schumer announced his support for the bipartisan Railway Safety Act and said he would work with the bill’s sponsors to advance it forward for a vote.

“This is precisely the kind of proposal we need to see in Congress,” he said.

“The bill is as smart as it is necessary,” Schumer said.

ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

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(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Three police officers are in the hospital after they were shot while serving a warrant in Kansas City, Missouri.

The shooting unfolded shortly after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday as the three officers from Kansas City’s tactical response team were executing a search warrant, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said. When the officers knocked and announced their presence, gunfire erupted from inside the home and the officers returned fire, Graves said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Wednesday morning that a standoff is ongoing.

The injured officers were hospitalized with “non-life-threatening, but serious injuries” and were listed in stable condition, police said. Graves said the three officers were able to talk and told her they were doing OK.

Kansas City police tweeted, “They put themselves in harm’s way to safeguard Kansas City, serving with bravery and selflessness, and for that, we are indebted to them.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted, “We’ve been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be. I am praying for a full recovery for our three officers injured this evening and that everyone on duty gets home to their families safely.”

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(NEW YORK) — The gates at Yosemite National Park have been shuttered due to extreme weather and climate conditions for a second time in less than a year.

The park has closed indefinitely after up to 15 feet of snow fell in some areas, the National Park Service announced on Tuesday night.

Yosemite had already been closed since Feb. 25 due to the storm that brought unusual amounts of snow to parts of California and was supposed to reopen on Wednesday.

Park officials are attempting to restore critical services so visitors can safely return, according to the National Park Service. However, there is no estimated date for reopening.

A major winter storm brought blizzard conditions to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Places like Soda Springs, California, about 200 miles north of Yosemite National Park, have seen about 109 inches of snow in the last week, according to the National Weather Service. More than 50 inches fell in the past two days.

Residents in the region are now being forced to dig out of their homes. Photos posted to Twitter by the National Park Service show homes nearly buried in snow and exterior doorways blocked by snowpack.

An additional 19 states are now on winter weather advisories for blizzards, heavy snow, damaging winds and flooding as the storm system moves east.

Portions of the park have closed several times over the past year due to conditions caused by extreme weather and climate.

In December, Big Oak Flat Road was closed for several days after a winter storm caused rocks to fall.

Wildfires in July last year that threatened the sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove forced the national park to close its southern entrance.

ABC News’ Max Golembo and Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.

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(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran DeWine, are visiting the train derailment site in East Palestine to get an update on the hazardous waste removal from the area.

Track removal is set to begin as soon as Wednesday, nearly four weeks after the train derailed and released several toxic chemicals — including vinyl chloride, ethyl acrylate and isobutylene — into the environment, according to an update from the governor’s office.

Officials from both the state and federal Environmental Protection Agency are “finalizing the process that Norfolk Southern will use to ensure the safe, complete, and effective cleanup of the hazardous waste under the train tracks at the derailment site,” the office said.

The DeWines will also be visiting Sulphur Run and Leslie Run, two waterways that were contaminated from the accident, to get an update on surface water testing and sediment washing.

Last week, Norfolk Southern’s CEO Alan Shaw elaborated that the company would be “temporarily” removing the tracks, beginning in early March, so it could excavate and remove the remaining contaminated soil.

The track removal is a change from Norfolk Southern’s original plan, which did not include tearing up the tracks.

Shaw last week said the original plan “would have effectively and safely remediated the soil under our tracks,” but after vehement concern and pressure from East Palestine residents, the company changed its strategy.

Meanwhile, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Tuesday it is planning on conducting door-to-door chemical exposure surveys in East Palestine to get “critical feedback” from first responders involved in the derailment.

Additionally, regional EPA Administrator Debra Shore lauded the agency’s new mobile lab that collects real-time air monitoring and sampling analysis during the waste removal and cleanup phase.

“This means we don’t have to send samples away for analysis — we can analyze them right here in the bus, as we collect them, and provide the results very quickly,” Shore said at a news briefing Tuesday.

The bus will be able to drive around town for those rapid air quality spot checks, she added.

Shore was asked repeatedly whether the cleanup and recovery response will include testing for dioxins, a group of toxic chemical compounds.

The burning of vinyl chloride can release dioxins into the air. According to the EPA, dioxins are known as persistent organic pollutants, meaning once they are released into the environment, they take a long time to break down.

If they are ingested, they take a long time to break down in the body because they are absorbed by fat tissue.

Dioxins are very dangerous and can cause a number of health issues including damage to the immune system, reproductive and developmental problems, hormone interference and even cancer.

Teams tested for dioxins immediately after the controlled burn but did not find high levels of the compounds, Shore said.

“There’s a whole suite of chemicals that they can test for,” Shore said. “We did — specifically after the vent and burn, look for the primary byproducts of the burning of vinyl chloride, which are phosgene and hydrogen chloride.”

She continued, “Dioxin is a secondary byproduct. We didn’t find elevated levels of those primary byproducts. Which suggested to our scientists that there was not a further risk of dioxin exposure.”

Severe weather has also been impacting clean up efforts. Heavy rains Monday caused “minor damage” to some of the containment, collection and stream treatment systems, DeWine’s office said in a statement Tuesday evening.

The damage may have caused a “small amount” of contaminants from Sulpher Run to enter Leslie Run, Ohio’s EPA said, but that those contaminants were heavily diluted.

A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern told ABC News the rain caused “very minor issues” with the cleanup effort and that it was “fixed within a matter of hours.” Those issues were not at the “core derailment site,” the spokesperson said.

The downpour also rapidly filled the storage bins that hold the contaminated liquid on site.

Norfolk Southern reported those bins are now roughly 90% full due to the recent rain, according to DeWine’s update.

A “bulk transfer method” will now be used for this excess of contaminated liquid caused by the rain, which was approved by the federal and state authorities overseeing the cleanup, the update said.

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(NEW YORK) — The CEO of Norfolk Southern, the rail company responsible for the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, has agreed to appear before a Senate committee next week, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Alan Shaw will appear before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee during a March 9 hearing.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Shaw to appear for a hearing during floor remarks on Monday.

“The American people should hear from Norfolk Southern CEO precisely why they thought it was a good idea to spend years lobbying to loosen regulations designed to prevent accidents like this,” Schumer said. “And I especially want to hear why Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3 billion in profits last year, prioritized billions in stock buybacks instead of putting that money towards safety and towards their workers.”

The hearing has not yet been formally noticed by the committee, but other witnesses are expected.

The freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed on Feb. 3 near East Palestine, sending toxic chemicals into the air, soil and creeks in the area. The derailment has caused concerns for residents as well as increased scrutiny of railway regulations and calls for reform.

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(NEW YORK) — More heavy, flooding rain is slamming hard-hit Southern California as the South braces for tornadoes.

In Los Angeles, where residents are still recovering from this weekend’s massive rainfall, a new flood advisory was issued Wednesday morning. Mudslides and rockslides are possible.

Meanwhile, this Southwest storm is bringing blizzard conditions to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

In Soda Springs, California, up to 109 inches of snow fell over the last week. Nearly half of that snow fell in the last 48 hours.

Yosemite National Park is buried under 15 feet of snow and is closed indefinitely.

Even Tucson, Arizona, is under a winter weather advisory. Tucson residents could get the same amount of snow that New York City saw on Tuesday.

This storm then will move into the Heartland, bringing a major severe weather outbreak on Thursday and Friday.

First, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes are possible from Dallas to Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday.

Then comes the major threat on Thursday when strong tornadoes are possible and winds could top 70 mph. Cities in the bull’s-eye on Thursday are Dallas, Little Rock, Arkansas and Shreveport, Louisiana, but the severe storms could extend to Mississippi and Tennessee.

This severe weather moves into the southeast and the Carolinas on Friday, with damaging winds and possible tornadoes. Cities in the path on Friday include Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.

The threat of heavy rain has also prompted flood watches in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

And to the north, that same storm system will drop heavy snow and ice on the Midwest and New England on Friday.

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(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Three police officers have been shot in Kansas City, Missouri, according to the city’s mayor, Quinton Lucas.

The incident occurred at approximately 9:30 p.m. when Kansas City Police department tactical officers were executing a warrant in the 2300 block of Blueridge Boulevard in the eastern part of the city.

The three officers who were shot were immediately taken to a local area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. They are currently listed in stable condition.

Authorities say that this is an active and ongoing investigation and any further inquiries will have to be directed to the Missouri Highway Patrol due to this being their investigation.

Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted: “We’ve been reminded too much lately in Kansas City how dangerous police work can be. I am praying for a full recovery for our three officers injured this evening and that everyone on duty gets home to their families safely.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A Pentagon advisory committee is recommending waiting periods and other gun restrictions for service members to help reduce suicides in the armed forces.

Among the nearly 130 recommendations in a report last week from the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee are: a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases on bases and other Department of Defense property as well as a four-day waiting period for ammunition purchases there, a raise in the minimum age for buying firearms there, from 18 to 25, and the repeal of a 2013 law that bars the military from tracking gun purchases.

Though there was a drop in 2021, suicides in the military have been gradually increasing since 2011, according to the Department of Defense, mirroring a nationwide trend.

In 2021, 519 service members died from suicide, a decrease from 582 in 2020, the Pentagon has said.

The Defense Department noted last year that the suicide risk is greatest for young enlisted men.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the creation of the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee in March 2022.

According to the new advisory report, 66% of active-duty suicides, 72% of reserve suicides and 78% of National Guard suicides involve firearms.

Experts like Margaret Kelley, a professor at the University of Kansas who has researched gun ownership trends and more, said that some in the military community, specifically veterans, support more restrictive gun measures across the board.

“In our research, we found that veterans supported a ban on the military-style weapons and high-capacity clips and also waiting periods,” said Kelley, who co-authored How do veterans view gun policies? Evidence from the Guns in American Life Survey.

“Our research shows that it’s combat veterans in particular who are more likely to be in favor of some of these restrictions,” Kelley said. “There’s something about the particular military experience that changes these attitudes.”

Of all gun violence deaths in the U.S. in 2023, suicide is the prevailing cause at more than 3,800 as of Tuesday, according to the Gun Violence Archives, which compiles and validates data from thousands of sources, according to its website.

For additional resources relating to veteran suicide prevention, visit the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs website, or call 988 and select 1 to talk to speak with a crisis responder.

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(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls for more than a decade, staking her argument on claims of juror misconduct, a violation of the statute of limitations, her treatment behind bars and a “Kabuki theater” atmosphere in the courtroom.

Maxwell, 60, was found guilty in December 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors. She is serving her sentence at FCI Tallahassee in Florida.

Her lawyers argued that Maxwell was denied a fair trial, in part, because one of the jurors failed to disclose his own history of sexual abuse during jury selection.

“Irrespective of whether the juror’s false statements were intentional, which they clearly were, the similarities between the traumatic experiences described by the juror and the victims in the case, together with the juror’s public statements, established the juror’s bias,” Maxwell’s appellate brief said.

The defense also argued that federal prosecutors waited too long to indict Maxwell, instead charging her with “time-barred offenses” and resurrecting “decades-old allegations” previously blamed on Epstein, who died by suicide in prison.

“In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epstein’s crimes on Maxwell, the government breached its promise not to prosecute Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses, resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants, and joined forces with complainants’ civil attorneys, whose interests were financial, to develop new allegations that would support charges against Maxwell,” the brief said.

“This is not a technical error. Statutes of Limitations are rooted in universally accepted notions that prompt investigation and prosecution ensure that conviction or acquittal is a reliable result, and not the product of faded memory or unavailable evidence, as was the case here,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said in a statement.

Maxwell’s conviction was based on the testimony of four women, three of whom were permitted to testify under pseudonyms, a decision Maxwell’s attorneys derided.

“The result transformed the trial into a form of Kabuki theater designed to remind the jury at every turn that these adult women were being protected because their privacy interests, and not Maxwell’s constitutional right to a public trial, were paramount,” the defense said.

Prior to and during the trial, Maxwell’s attorneys had frequently complained about the conditions of her confinement at MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center) Brooklyn, and those arguments reappeared in her appellate argument.

“By the time of trial, Maxwell was so disoriented and diminished that she was unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify,” Maxwell’s attorneys said.

Her appeal also argued Maxwell’s prosecution was improper because of a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein. The trial judge said that agreement did not apply in New York, but the defense said it should have immunized Maxwell as a defendant.

“The government prosecuted Ms. Maxwell as a proxy for Jeffrey Epstein. It did so to satisfy public outrage over an unpopular non-prosecution agreement and the death of the person responsible for the crimes,” Aidala said.

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